Dear Readers: When we printed the letter from Walt Paluch, asking for the words to an old Father's Day song, we had no idea so many readers would be interested. Although none seems to hit the nail on the head, one comes close. It was sent in by two readers, one from Ft. Myers Beach, Fla., and the other from New Bedford, Mass. Take a look:
Wonderful Daddy of Mine
Songwriters write about Mothers
Songs that are touching and sad.
Seems they forget about Daddies
So I'll sing this song for my Dad.
There's no pal in the world like my Daddy,
Wonderful Daddy of mine.
I will always be kind to my Daddy,
Wonderful Daddy of mine.
I was thinking today if my Daddy'd go away
How I'd miss him, how I'd long for him.
I know that I'd say, there's no pal in the world like my Daddy.
From California: Could these be the words?
F is for the Faith that I have in you.
A is for the Affection that you treat me with.
T is for the Tender touch of yours.
H is for the Happiness that you give me.
E is for the Endless sacrifice that you make for me.
R is for the Rapture that I get in your company.
From Kamuela: My ukulele class has been singing this song as taught to us by Kumu Na'alei Liana:
F is being Faithful, understanding.
A is Always generous and kind.
T for Tender loving care you gave me.
H is for the Helpful things you do.
E for Every sacrifice you've made, dear.
R is Remembering to be extra-special kind.
Put them all together they spell FATHER,
A man who means the world to me.
Dear Annie: Although I'm 84 years old, I've never heard a Father's Day song. So I composed these words — they're yours if you want them.
— Regina Engler
F is for the faith with which you raised me.
A is for affection that we shared.
T is for the tenderness you gave me.
H is for the heart that showed you cared.
E is for the eyes that glimpsed the future.
R is for remembering the past.
Put them all together they spell Father,
The one whose love will always last.
College Station, Texas: My father used to sing this when I was a little girl:
F is for the funny face of Father.
A is for the alcohol he drinks.
T is for the tales he tells to Mother.
H is how she believes them, though he thinks.
E is for the evenings he's spent rambling.
R is for the rum he drinks with joy.
Put them all together they spell father. And father he's a gay ole' boy.
California: Maybe this is what Walt is looking for:
F is for the faith and love you gave me.
A is for the attention that you paid me.
T is for the tears you helped to wipe away.
H is for your heart of purest gold.
E is for the proudness in your eyes.
R is for the right you'll always be.
You put them all together they spell father.
You mean all the world to me.
Tamiment, Pa.: Here's the Father's Day Song:
F is for my fat and funny father,
A is for the alcohol he drinks,
T is for the tales he tells to mother,
H is for his heart like tiddlywinks.
E is for the eyes he gazes into,
R is for the rum he does consume,
Put them all together they spell FATHER,
The guy who sleeps in our front room.
Annie's Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann Landers column. Please e-mail your questions to anniesmailbox@comcast.net, or write to: Annie's Mailbox, c/o Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Ste. 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. To find out more about Annie's Mailbox and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM
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22 Comments | Post Comment
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I thought this was and advice column?
Comment: #1
Posted by: jjlm
Sat Aug 14, 2010 1:57 AM
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This is truly the work of God today. I'm headed to my Fathers funeral in SC in about 2 hours. I can't believe this was printed today. Thank you Annies. Ill cherrish this forever. My Dad died of old age & hadn't opened his eyes for days....& then he opened them, with all 5 hildren there & turned toward his wife, of 53 years, our mother, & gazed lovongly at her for several seconds, closed them for the last time & went to be with Jesus. His obituary is in the Charlotte Observer, charlotte NC, yesterday, Raymond Rudolph Cooke. My name is Fran btw, not Crissy. Thanks for printing this today.
Comment: #2
Posted by: Crissy
Sat Aug 14, 2010 4:26 AM
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Wow! Dads get no respect. Is this an advice column or an avenue to bash men? Maybe Marcy and Kathy should consult a therapist as to why their columns seemingly slant to the anti-male side of the coin. If this was meant to be satiracal, I find it to be more hostile than funny. The last songs/poems indicate that "Dad" is an obese alcoholic that lies to his wife. I believe an apology is in order ... if you published something similar with regards to Motherhood (if the editors would even publish it), you would probably lose your jobs due to the backlash. Maybe for pennance you should compose a more appropriate Father's Day song.
Comment: #3
Posted by: jlw1877
Sat Aug 14, 2010 4:58 AM
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I agree with jlw1877 and cannot believe "Crissy" gets comfort out of this article. She must've only read the first half of the column.
Comment: #4
Posted by: jlw1877
Sat Aug 14, 2010 5:13 AM
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So, jlw1877, you agree with you OWN post? You need to get a life. To Fran, aka Crissy, I'm sorry for your loss.
Comment: #5
Posted by: Jean
Sat Aug 14, 2010 5:20 AM
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Crissy, you have my condolences on the loss of your father. This column was apropos for me as well as I recently lost my own father and had been thinking about him a lot standing in for him to give my sister away at her wedding two weeks ago.
Comment: #6
Posted by: Chris
Sat Aug 14, 2010 5:44 AM
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I don't know who comment # 4 came from, but I did not agree with my own post, I lost my Dad before 2000 and he was nothing like the California or Tamiment, Pa. post. That is why I take offense to it. If any of the other poster relate to those, I feel you are disrespecting the memory of your father.
Comment: #7
Posted by: jlw1877
Sat Aug 14, 2010 7:33 AM
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@jlw1877 & others who are offended by today's letter. Please go immediately to Google and look up the term "Tongue-in-cheek." Never mind, I'll simply tell you what it means: "a term used to refer to humor in which a statement, or an entire fictional work, is not meant to be taken seriously, but its sarcasm is subtle." Some of these "FATHER" songs are examples. Don't be so sensitive.
Comment: #8
Posted by: Chris
Sat Aug 14, 2010 7:57 AM
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Crissy,
My condolences. May your Dad rest in peace.
Re: agreeing with your own posts: Sometimes, there are glitches on the site. I come to read the column, and see that I am logged in as BB, or Pat-tricia, or VW. I don't know why this happens. I don't know who these folks are, although I enjoy reading their posts, and I obviously don't know their log-in names or passwords. I am careful NOT to post when this happens. Sometimes, closing the browser and re-opening it helps to achieve a "log-out," but not always. I think this is just a problem with the site.
Re: disrespect to the fathers. There are 7 "Father's Day" songs in the column; 6 of them deal with "deciphering" what the letters in the word "father" stand for. One of them is wholly about sort of negative things, like alcohol and tales told to mother. This is the one from the LW in Texas. But, if you notice, this LW says that her father sang it to her. If a guy is not allowed to make fun of himself, who is? The last lyrics also have some references to alcohol and tales, but also to being funny and fun-loving (which I gather from the reference to the heart like tiddlywinks). Where is disrespect in that?
Comment: #9
Posted by: Ariana
Sat Aug 14, 2010 8:08 AM
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Crissy, please accept my condolences. Your father sounds like he was a rare gem and I'm sorry for your loss.
Comment: #10
Posted by: PS
Sat Aug 14, 2010 8:13 AM
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Ahem... and *I* also found the words to the first song and posted them here, although I was too lazy to email them to the Annies!
Crissy, so sorry about your father. May you and your family all be a comfort to each other.
Comment: #11
Posted by: Van Wickle
Sat Aug 14, 2010 8:50 AM
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For those of you with wonderful fathers, why not spend the time you're complaining here about "disrespect" by phoning or emailing him instead. Some of us, unfortunately, can relate to the negative songs. I wish my father had only been as bad as the ones described above. "A" would have to stand for "abusive" for mine.
Comment: #12
Posted by: Joannakathryn
Sat Aug 14, 2010 10:30 AM
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Re: jlw1877 - Oh look everybody, it's anti-feminist crackpot JOHN WILSON again. Only he's not brave enough to post his name and phone number anymore!
Comment: #13
Posted by: Susan B. Anthony
Sat Aug 14, 2010 11:01 AM
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Re: Joannakathryn - Amen, sister!
jlw1877 - I believe at this point you fall under the troll category. Go find something else to do, preferably not in the company of women.
Comment: #14
Posted by: PS
Sat Aug 14, 2010 11:38 AM
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All these "Father" songs and no one remembers this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h86PCtb-4R4
OH, MY PA-PA
(performed by Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle)
Oh, my pa-pa, to me he was so wonderful
Oh, my pa-pa, to me he was so good
No one could be, so gentle and so lovable
Oh, my pa-pa, he always understood.
Gone are the days when he could take me on his knee
And with a smile he'd change my tears to laughter
Oh, my pa-pa, so funny, so adorable
Always the clown so funny in his way
Oh, my pa-pa, to me he was so wonderful
Deep in my heart I miss him so today.
Comment: #15
Posted by: VAdame
Sat Aug 14, 2010 8:36 PM
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I too lost my father a few years ago. Unfortunately, I could relate to the final poems written in the Annie's column. Before taking offense to the negative tone, remember that not everyone has the same life experiences and not everyone had the ideal childhood with the parent they call father. (Or even mother for that matter.) I wish if I were to write a "Father" tribute it could be all positive but that would only be writing about who I wish he was instead of who he really was. He had some serious issues and the best I can do is to forgive him. I am sorry for everyone's loss but the only way to fix what has been done is to become the father for our kids present day that we wish we had all along. Maybe someday my daughter will be able to write "Father" with the utmost respect, love and admiration.
Comment: #16
Posted by: Marty
Sun Aug 15, 2010 5:37 AM
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I DID only read the first part of the article!!!! Now I feel horrible! My dad was not an alcoholic! He was the greatest Dad on earth!! Now I'm mad!! Annies DONT PRINT HATEMAIL!!!! My Dad worked very hard to give his 5 children the advantages in life that he never had,, I hope some one reads this today, I didn't read the whol thing. I feel awful that yall might think my dad was a bad person. Pls let me know if anyone saw my 2nd comment??? Please??
Comment: #17
Posted by: Crissy
Sun Aug 15, 2010 7:56 AM
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Relax Crissy, you are probably under a great deal of stress right now and need to have a little more peace. God knows what is in your heart and I don't doubt for a second that your father is with his King. I don't know you and I apologize if I seem to assume too much, but grief from one family to another is the same the world over. I am lucky to still have my father, however my father lost his parents in 2001. They died nine days apart and I wrote their obituary, I made so many grammatical errors, but it was the heart of what I was getting at plus the funny things they did and said that reminded everyone of how great they were. Did I mention they were both teachers? As were most of their closest friends. When we scattered their ashes in the bay outside of their house, my father spilled half of his mothers ashes all over his shoes and the deck of the boat. Which is funny because my Grandma loved my father deeply, loved shoes and the boat was named after her, "Beatrice Ruth". Nine years later, it's actually kind of funny. You might not think this is funny now, but in time, it may be something that makes you giggle a little. Your father might be laughing a little bit right now. Okay I have to tell you this too. A friend of mine was a paramedic and was called to a home where the son found his father dead in the kitchen. The son was about sixty years old and my friend found him on the back porch laughing and crying at the same time. The emergency team came to find out that the father died with his face in a plate full of spaghetti. He'd been about to eat dinner when he had a massive heart attack and fell face forward into his plate. The father had been a comedy writer and this was exactly the kind of thing that would have made him laugh. He was ninety years old and was found with marinara all over his face. Your father had five children and had a life, whether he was perfect or not doesn't matter, (he sounds wonderful to me) and you need to give yourself a break. I really am sorry for your loss.
Comment: #18
Posted by: Chelle
Sun Aug 15, 2010 8:50 AM
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Re: Crissy: Honey, please don't feel horrible! There's no need. The guy who posted comments earlier complaining about the column isn't someone whose opinion you should take seriously. The last two songs are just parodies, meant to be in good fun. Notice that one of them was sent in by a reader who said her own father used to sing it to her! Keep in mind that some men are embarrassed by anything too sentimental and prefer something funny, or they might enjoy a funny version of a song in addition to the serious version. Did your dad have a sense of humor? Is it possible that the joke versions would have given him a laugh?
In any case, please don't worry. Nobody here is going to think anything bad about you or your dad. He sounds like a wonderful man. You're very lucky to have had such a great dad! And even though he's not around anymore, I bet he'll always be with you in spirit.
Comment: #19
Posted by: Van Wickle
Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:14 AM
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Chelle, the spaghetti story is great :-D Thanks for telling it.
Comment: #20
Posted by: Van Wickle
Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:17 AM
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Anybody remember Paul Peterson (Donna Reed Show) singing "My Dad"? I would pretend that Carl Betz was my dad sometimes, and I'm happy to say that my own son can relate to this about his dad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-vYuV3OmhE
Comment: #21
Posted by: Joannakathryn
Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:27 AM
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I just read the whole thing. I think it was suppose to be funny but I must say a tad inappropriate. Anyway thanks for all of our thoughts. It still seems so surreal....thanks again guys...
Comment: #22
Posted by: Crissy
Mon Aug 16, 2010 11:00 AM
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