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I am not one of those who believes Father’s Day is dad’s excuse to bore his family to the brink of catatonia, either by giving them a lot of chores to do or dragging them around a golf course.
Neither should dad be allowed to spend Father’s Day in the basement watching super-8 movies of Detroit Lions team highlights from the ’50s.
No, I think Father’s Day should be a day for everybody to do things that everybody enjoys doing together.
Now, this is not to suggest that dad shouldn’t be made to feel special.
But it is also dad’s job to make everybody feel glad that they have him for a dad.
Here are some good ideas that you should embrace, along with some bad ideas that you should avoid.
Write dad’s “Father’s Day” newspaper article for him – I understand that this isn’t applicable everywhere.
Surprises – I think surprises that are pleasingly surprising rather than spuriously surprising are pleasing.
In other words, I love it when my family gets creative.
About the only objects I truly treasure these days are crafts made for me by my kids.
I gaze at them, feel grateful for the love of my children, then feel wistful about the swift passage of time, then fall into a monthlong depression.
It is a beautiful process.
I think any gift that shows effort and involvedness of forethought is great.
For example, I have always liked the homemade coupon concept.
Kids can make coupons that are redeemable for chores; wives can make coupons of a more conjugal nature; and bosses can make coupons that excuse dad from the next round of layoffs.
I am also a fan of blank greeting cards that family members are compelled to write in. A note composed by a family member is far dearer to me than poetry composed on an assembly line.
Other good gift ideas I have heard about include scrapbooks, bound collections of children’s drawings, video greeting cards, sweet or funny notes hidden in various places around the house, and homemade crowns that dad must wear all day, especially around his cruelest buddies.
BBQ – If your father likes barbecue, then this is a good day to be a dad. Your dad could conceivably eat barbecue at four separate events and be so full of barbecue by the end of the day that he gets a medal from the National Pork Producers Council, which sounds like it would be cool but the thing weighs 4 pounds and resembles a sow’s haunches, only silver.
There’s BBQ Ribfest at Headwaters Park, of course. And the Foellinger Freimann Botanical Conservatory is having something called a Botanical Brew & Q featuring carnal succulence of the morally unimpeachable variety, micro brews and the blues music of Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel. Moosewood BBQ at 5755 St. Joe Road will have all-you-can-eat ribs (and catfish) all day, and Hall’s Triangle Park at 3010 Trier Road is offering a barbecue platter special complete with several different types of meat and strawberry shortcake for dessert.
Music – I think a good thing for a dad to do on Father’s Day is take his kids to see a concert featuring music that he likes and that they might possibly like.
I can’t speak for other dads, but I like Tad Robinson. I like him a lot.
In fact, he is one of my favorite contemporary blues artists, and he is performing today at BBQ Ribfest.
The Chicago-based vocalist and harmonica player is a practitioner of soul blues, a genre that owes as much to Otis Redding or Al Green as it does to Leadbelly or Muddy Waters.
Robinson’s stuff is warm and welcoming to blues aficionados and neophytes alike.
Poker night – Don’t let dad attend one. Poker isn’t manly.
I’d say it’s lost its cachet, but the word “cachet” has lost its cachet. Cachet isn’t manly. Maybe the problem is that poker has gained a cachet. It’s a basic-cable, Z-grade celeb cachet. Do you know what the manly card game is now? Canasta.
Dueling Dupont brunches – Oyster Bar North at 1509 W. Dupont Road and Lucky’s Terrapin Grill at 622 E. Dupont Road are both hosting sumptuous Father’s Day brunches. I have never been to Lucky’s Terrapin Grill, but I have always admired the Oyster Bar North’s brunch planners for coming up with a single magic word that lets an adult get away with drinking alcohol before noon: mimosa.
Black Pine Animal Park and other places where jungle animals hang out – Black Pine Animal Park at 1426 W. Noble County Road 300 N. in Albion is offering free admission for dads today.
Then again, you may want to use today to finally check out (and what took you so long?) the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo’s new African Journey.
Trains – The Fort Wayne Historical Society is sponsoring Father’s Day rides behind a restored steam locomotive.
The train departs North Judson at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. today. Tickets are $30 adults and $25 for children 3 to 12. The debarkation point is 507 Mulberry St.
Go to the movies as a family – There are plenty of good movies out there right now that can be enjoyed on several levels. “Up” is from Pixar, a company that manages to please everything while catering to no one.
“Star Trek” caters to dad’s nostalgia for cheesy sci-fi and teens’ need for fresh hunks and hotties.
And “Imagine That” caters to kids’ need for a little magic in their lives and dad’s nostalgia for the days when Eddie Murphy was funny.
Let dad go to the one movie that was not made for the entire family but that he simply must see – I speak, of course, of “The Hangover.”
