{"id":3843,"date":"2005-06-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=3843"},"modified":"2017-03-13T15:13:04","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T22:13:04","slug":"cherishing-each-phrase-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=3843","title":{"rendered":"Cherishing each phrase of my life"},"content":{"rendered":"

My father always knows how to say it best<\/strong><\/h4>\n

“Don’t worry, honey. We’ll buy her pretty clothes and develop her personality.”<\/p>\n

This was the first thing my Dad said to my mom when he saw me, his first-born.<\/p>\n

Granted, this was 1963, I had a forceps-dented forehead, and the only labor fathers participated in those days was pacing the hospital halls and handing out cigars, so seeing this very un-Gerber-baby-like creature might have been a bit of a shock. Why he repeats the story every birthday is another matter.<\/p>\n

Keep this in mind as I begin to tell you about a few of my father’s other favorite phrases. While most people’s Dads offer cliched fatherly wisdom about walking miles to school in the snow, earning just pennies an hour for backbreaking labor, or eating your vegetables because of starving children in faraway countries, my Dad is nothing if not an original.<\/p>\n

Pain is Your Friend<\/a><\/h4>\n

Ask any of the 6th graders who helped to taunt, I mean, lead the kindergarteners through an obstacle course for a recent Vieja Valley School <\/a>fundraiser, and they will tell you that this is my Dad’s favorite phrase. He coached them to use it to goad my 5-year-old son, who’s been the fortunate — or unfortunate — recipient of two generations worth of pent up Dinaberg testosterone. Koss was more impressed that all the 6th graders seemingly knew him.<\/p>\n