Men of Reddit who lost there Fathers, and or Grandfathers what’s your most fond memory with them.

14 comments

1. Its always the doing. Whether simple stuff like going to autoswaps with them or things you built. You build a collection of memories with your children and grandchildren if youre good at it ant they’ll remember you for more than one thing.

   The time he challenege you to a race when you were a child. You go this way and ill go that way. Then he went inside as soon as you rounded the corner to see if youd make a whole lap before realizing you were fooled.

   The time you found a tire in the lake and he cut it into strips for you to make a band gun contraption.

   The time he taught you to shoot and you ricocheted into the van so you also got to learn how to install a radiator.

   The time he fogged the mosquitos with the lawnmower so you know how to do that to**o**.

   The time he built the worm fork you still use.

   on and on and on.

   Be a man.

2. Never saw much of my father because he was a sailor. I had a very strict mother who was very religious (never gave me a hug). When I turned 18 my dad brought me along to Spain on a ship and to a brothel. There were only women in their 40s there, but then I got taken so well care of that I really felt I should get myself a gf.

3. When I was taking swimming lessons as a kid, my dad was usually the one to take me. And, even in the dead of winter, he’d take me to this tiny little ice cream place and we’d sit in his truck and have ice cream together. On the tailgate if it wasn’t too cold, in the cab if it was.

4. Throwing a ball with my dad. Be it baseball or football. Why do you think the whole point of the movie Field of Dreams was to give a son one last chance to have a catch with his dad.

5. I didn’t really know my father’s father, but my mother’s father I knew and grew up with. He was a very isolating man, he knew what he liked and lived accordingly. He was abrasive. My fondest memory of him was when I was in grade school. I was studying for a spelling test and that was something he could help out with. This was a man who didn’t often express a lot of emotion so when I saw joy on his face when he was helping me with spelling it stuck with me. I actually look back on it from time to time and it makes me miss him.

6. I haven’t lost my father and I dread the day I do.

   But my grandfather was a joyless, chain-smoking curmudgeon I spent my childhood avoiding as much as possible, mostly because of the cigarette smell. Hated it then, hate it now. The joyless curmudgeon part I probably could have tolerated.

   He wasn’t a bad guy, but there was never anything there to remember fondly (or miss now that he’s gone).

   (My other grandfather died before I was born.)

7. Sitting outside with my grandpa and listening to him tell stories.

8. He took me out of school for the day and we went fishing.

9. My father and I would go for long walks in the woods together. It was always a great time exploring with him.

10. my dad’s dad was super old-school and used to have a barber come to his house every day to shave him and occasionally cut his hair and give him a head massage. when i’d hang out at his place i’d just watch and chat with him on occasion. i took a picture when he was getting shaved and it’s really candid and one of my favorite photos of him. i gifted it to my dad in a frame for last father’s day and he is also a fan.

11. When I was very little, like under 10, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents place. My grandfather loved practical jokes, and one time he invited us to play cards with him.

    To us, this was like him saying we were adults! He played with his group of friends regularly- cigars and all.

    He won every hand with us, and we didn’t catch on until he showed a hand with five Aces. He had taped a bunch of cards under the table.

    He was so pleased with our apparent distress when we discovered the deception, and it was truly hilarious.

12. I still have my old man, but grandpa passed away when I was in High School.

    Grandpa was ex-military and my dad used to say “That’s not the man I grew up with.” because he was so different with us. Every friday he would take us to Toys “R” Us and let us pick out a modest toy, nothing crazy as he wasn’t rich or anything. I remember one day looking at a massive bucket of the green and tan army men, it was like fifty bucks back in the nineties and was LEGIT. Normally well out of the budget he said I could have it and then grabbed two more, one each for my sister and brother.

    We get back to the house and break out the armies and he played army men with us for the rest of the day, perfectly happy to be the bad guys and lose every time to our made up, incoherent rules. He taught me to play chess, how to fix a VCR, he taught me how to cook all sorts of Irish meals and would always play nerf battle with me.

    My very last memory of him at the hospital was bitter sweet. He had cancer and was on chemo, it was not going well and he was fading. The doctor is explaining to us that we could do nothing and he would be gone in a week, or try a new treatment that might not kill him. Well as I was holding his hand and he’s barely able to hear my dad, uncle, and I nevermind understand. Well while we are trying to decide how to proceed I felt my grandpa slip away in my hand. To this day I’ll never forget what that felt like. But for all of us it felt like Grandpa has made the choice for us, he had raised us all right, done his share for family and country, and he was done. I will always believe he made that decision to save us from having to make it.

13. Playing chess with my Grandfather. Man is a legend and never took it easy on me. He’d always pull out a freezer burnt popsicle after or some hard candy that would be stuck to the bottom of a dish. I thought he was the greatest.

14. I don’t know if I have a specific memory. My grandfather passed when I was a kid, so I only remember bits and pieces.

    His accent (Greek immigrant), his flower shop (the smell, sitting at the counter, stuff like that), the fact he always gave me $20 when he saw me.

    I had a babysitter who lived in the same neighborhood, and I remember them taking me to the water to feed the ducks, and at least my grandmother was there. Not sure if he was too.