Fathers

 

Father coming home was one of those rituals from childhood one remembers well not least for how so much of that contrasts with life for many of today's boys and girls.

For one thing it was almost a given in this area for your mother to be at home at least for when you came back from school if indeed she did 'work' so you were with her for a period before Dad came and you might of brought a friend to play with you which often meant they'd have tea with you.

Father arriving as usually later - usually with me if I was at home about five in the evening - and you would know the sound of his car coming down the driveway.

Typically he'd have the final say on anything in house.

Normally he'd take off his coat and shoes before Mum had made him a fresh drink of tea and ask him as she had asked us how his day had been before he'd move on to asking us about our days and if we'd anything from school for him such as permissions for trips, the school report and so on.

We might ask if he could do things like help fix your bike or repair a button that had come of your tape recorder.

There was an expression "wait till your father gets home" and indeed that was the title of a US teen centric show and that was because in most homes Dad handled discipline, not that your Mum didn't do anything and if we'd been really cheeky or naughty then usually out of our earshot he'd be informed of it.

You'd be sat on pins, nervous about the outcome as he would say "I wish to see you in your room" before lecturing you and as was common in that era spanking you with a slipper and perhaps adding a forfeit.

For all of that though he might as well of been A God cos you worshipped the ground he walked upon, spending as much time learning things with him as you could and seeing him as an example to become more like as an adult.