Sam Krause
Balls were bouncing in the gym.
Children were running, shooting baskets.
Among all the chaos
I saw you grinning at me –
wanting me to watch you.
You waved at me – I waved at you.
You showed me how you could dribble.
The moment froze in my memory.
READ MORE
I look at my father, I look at my son, and I understand the privilege that was handed to me, and the responsibility that I have accepted.
I had a phenomenal role model for fatherhood. Now I have to be one.
Bob’s dad, Bob, and Xavier
I am black. My father is black. My son is black. Most black boys — black children — grow up without their fathers in the home. Most black boys — black children — grow up with mothers who are not married. The married-to-mom black father is the rarest of parents.
My father and mother celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in February. They married, had three children, and stayed married. It was not, as foolish people say, “the times.” Plenty of the couples my parents partied with back in the 60s and 70s split up.
READ MORE
Imagine for a moment…
You’re a professional golfer, leading one of the biggest tournaments in the world. Two days down, two to go. You have a 36 hole lead, first place, worth over a million bucks.
Saturday, Day 3. Practice Tee. Warming up.
Hunter Mahan at work.
An unexpected call — your manager runs over, phone in hand. Kandi, your wife, has just gone into labor — three weeks early! What do you do? READ MORE
Today’s story appeared originally in The Wall Street Journal. Barbara Corcoran spoke with reporter Marc Myers. Barbara and Marc kindly allowed Savvy Dad to share this story.
I know that I seem tough on TV’s “Shark Tank,” often tearing into business pitches, but deep down I’m really a softie. Growing up in Edgewater, N.J. in the mid-1950s with five sisters and four brothers, I loved listening to my father sing in the living room every Wednesday night with his barbershop quartet. The song he sang that touched me most was “Heart of My Heart.”
Barbara and her Dad
My father loved music more than anything else. A printing press foreman in Newark, N.J., he had taught himself to play guitar, piano and accordion. He also sang tenor with a group of guys he worked with and always sang at family gatherings. When I was about 5 years old, my father began singing “Heart of My Heart” each night to put us all to sleep. But since he couldn’t be in both the boys and girls’ rooms at once, he’d sing live in one and play a tape of him singing the song in the other. The next night he’d switch. READ MORE
“What do you mean girls can’t play ball?”
“My daughter can beat every boy in the gym!”
In a time when girls were relegated to the sideline by a society that said, “Sit, smile, cheer,” Dad told me, “Run, jump, play.” Heck, my dad was ahead of Title IX.
Pat McKinzie-Lechault and her dad, Jim McKinzie.
When other dads insisted their daughters play dolls, Dad nurtured my athleticism. Every time Dad played catch with my brother, he’d throw the ball to me too, so I grew up feeling equal to boys.
Dad even taught me how to hang on to a football so expertly I’d have been a first string wide receiver had I been a boy. While society insisted sports were harmful for females, Dad encouraged me to play ball. During the infancy of Title IX, together my father and I fought a steady battle for girls’ sports.
I grew up in a different time. It was during an era when athletic girls had no role models. When others teased, “Hey, jock,” I cringed, but never lost my self-esteem. READ MORE
Harold Herring with his mother and father
When I was a freshman in college…we were asked to write a paper on the greatest man we’d ever met. It was an easy and immediate decision for me… I wrote about my Father.
Since that first year of college…I’ve met five Presidents, two Vice-Presidents, numerous Generals, Admirals, sports stars, singers, international ministry leaders and assorted other celebrities and persons in authority.
If I were asked to write the same paper during this the 25th anniversary of my 39th birthday year…I would still write about my father…for whom I will always call Daddy, so why change.
He was and still is the greatest man I’ve ever met.
My purpose in this blog is not just to write something sentimental about my father but there are several things that “Mr. Harold,” as Dad was known in our town, taught me…that will benefit and bless all who read these words. READ MORE
Remember the movie Jerry Maguire? When Tom Cruise takes a stand by writing a “mission statement” that ultimately gets him fired. (And, he recruits that lonely fish to accompany him on the way out.)
Roger with his father, Senator Charles Goodell
At different times in our lives, we all face the decision — take a stand for what’s right, and fair, and just. Or play it safe, keep quiet, and move on. While we may differ drastically as to where we stand, we should never differ as to why we stand there — always because we believe it is right, and fair, and just.
Unfortunately, some people advocate for the wrong reason. Politicians may be most susceptible given the “re-electionary” nature of their jobs. READ MORE