Purple Man Toes

Below you will find a piece I wrote on 8/27/2006.  Madyson was just two months shy of being 6 years old. At that time I was working in Temple, TX.  It was a Sunday evening, and I had just settled into the Holiday Inn Express. I plopped down on the bed, pointed the remote at the TV and that’s when I noticed it….

A “Madd”^* Rant

I am surrounded by girls. 

My wife; a girl,

My kids; both girls;

Even the dog; girl. 

It seems though, at times, I have to check in my “Man Card” to be the “man” these females need me to be.

Dear GOD, I am a man.

I’m a dad. 

I am a husband.

I am a full blooded, all American, 100% heterosexual male. 

I drive a truck.

I have a license to carry a handgun. 

For cryin’ out loud

For the love of all that is Holy and good

I AM A MAN

But…

Tonight, I am a man working with focused determination trying to remove purple and pink toenail polish from my MAN toes.   Yet, even as nice as they look on me, they’ve got to go.  No, no seriously, they really have to go.

*For Madyson who needed to paint her daddy’s toes. 

I Saw My Dad Today

Daddy went to be the Lord in the summer of 2009, but today, he was standing right there looking at me over the top rim of his glasses. I would swear that was him.

Every time I saw Daddy he would say, “hey boy”, or, “there’s my number two son”. Even though I always assumed that the “number two son” moniker was based on chronology and not as a runner up, I preferred it when he called me “boy”.

He is the one who gave me the name, “Gordon”.  I always hated that name. No one I ever knew had that name. Kids would call me “Flash” or “Gardenia”.  “Hey, Gardenia, how are your pansies?” As a melancholy middle child I really didn’t need any help in the doldrums department. One of my siblings, I don’t think it would be right to mention their name, although it wasn’t one of my brothers or my oldest sister, would make fun of me saying, “Hey, Gordenis with the little p__is”.  I always wondered how they knew. Anyway, that’s a story for another time.

The one nickname that still lingers is, Gordo. I actually like it we people call me, “Gordo”.  It’s kind of nice when someone uses a nickname for you. BUT, do you know what “gordo” means in Spanish? Not so endearing.



Madyson & Pappy
2006



Anyway, we were at our new favorite hamburger place yesterday and I was getting perched up on my stool getting ready to devour my bacon cheeseburger made all the way with smothered onions, bell peppers, and dripping with heart clogging calories when Madyson looked up at me and said, “Daddy, you looked just like Pappy when you did that”.  To which I replied, “I always thought Pappy was a good-looking man”. Sheri had to agree, right?

A few months ago my sibs and I met at Sudie’s for a birthday dinner with our Mom.  By the time I got there everyone else had already been seated.  As I approached the table, the number one son (chronological) said to me, “You know, out of all of us, you look the most like Daddy.” To which I replied, “I always thought Daddy was a handsome guy”. Of course they all had to agree, right?

Well, there I was this morning bushing my teeth and somewhere within the two minute bushing cycle predetermined by my SoniCare system, I looked up over the top rim of my glasses into the mirror, and there he was. I have to say, that if he loses a little weight, he’d still be quite the handsome man.