If you haven't met my dad, here he is. I'm a little younger than Mermaid in this picture. I'm not sure if he knows it, but we call him Safety Merv. We were the only kids with bike helmets in 1982. He and my mom sewed seat belts for the back seat of the van because they didn't come standard. He told us horror stories of severed hands and heads when people stuck them out of the car window. We shot guns, but we always wore eye and ear protection and we had gun safety lessons each time. He made us stay inside in the basement during heatwaves. He has flares and a little orange pop up safety cone in his trunk in case he needs to fix a flat. He made us read the safety instruction card in airplanes and always know where our nearest exit was.
Now I tell my kids about severed hands, make them wear their helmets, and make them stay several feet from the curb when at a crosswalk. Thanks Dad.
I love that this stuff about your dad involves guns and seatbelts.
ReplyDeleteAmazing on the chairs! I want to learn how to do that. My two rocking chairs are looking AWFUL, cushions wise.
ok now you've told the family secrets! I didn't sew the seatbelts.
ReplyDeleteWe bought them and your dad had to crawl under the van and bolt them while I held them on the inside. That's the same thing he had to do to install the seats.
You might as well tell them that when I stop for a train I stay back 20-30 yards because my dad worked for the railroad and I saw train derailments. Another thing for your kids to worry about!