In praise of a really good man – my Dad

It's Father's Day and the perfect time to remember a great man who certainly did his best, both in wartime and for the greater length of his life, as a dedicated family man, a father, and in many ways a guiding light from

childhood.

Let me introduce my Dad, Eric, a good man, who relatively suddenly found himself with an increasing brood as his hometown came under intense bombing in the early Second World War.

As the fashion was back in my early years, he was the disciplinarian in the household. Heaven help you if he felt the need to act as executioner.

He had what seemed a heavy hand, which in those times was fashionably applied to bare buttocks at a powerful rate.

or any stage of childhood, to be 'smacked' is a truly horrible experience.

Painful

The blows were painful but perhaps worse was the criticism of the executioner, the condemnation in his voice.

Thank heavens society has grown out of that fashion. Of course, back then bombs were falling all around, and I don't doubt that the atmosphere at his workplace in the Spitfire industry was exceedingly tense.

But at heart he was a good fellow, and really courageous.

On the lighter side in a part of Southampton littered with bombed-out houses, he would entertain the growing family with one of his passions.

Home movies

He was entranced by home movies, made his own, and borrowed some splendid old films.

Robinson Cruscoe was one the family saw often, and another that stands out in memory is The Count of Monte Cristo.

Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventuring book, Sailing to Purgatory, at  http://sailingtopurgatory.com/index.php/feeds/405-in-praise-of-a-really-good-man-my-dad