My dad

[formant]

My dad

My dad was a banker (as was my mother actually). Politically left of the centre (German - my entire family has a long history of voting Social Democrat). Used to play football, later switched to golf. Died 6 years ago at 50, heart attack while golfing in Portugal. I was devastated, we had always been super close. Took a few years after his death for me to even get on with my mom.

He'd have made a brilliant granddad...

[sasguru]

Ahhh, I see, still blaming your parents for your failure in life, even at 40 something?

But I'm richer (and not only financially) than you so you must be really at the bottom

[DimPrawn]

My dad used to fly Spitfires with a bowl of spaghetti on his lap.

[sasguru]

My dad used to fly Spitfires with a bowl of spaghetti on his lap.

It obviously damaged his sperm quality.

[pjclarke]

Was one of 5 boys, abandoned by their Dad when he was 4, brought up by their Mum on the wages of a boot-factory worker. All went on into Education and did well, curiously, becomimg head teachers or similar. Dad took a joint honours in Spanish and French, did a Masters in Spanish and became a specialist in language teaching, lectured at York Uni, wrote academic textbooks, went abroad for the British Council to teach EFL, courses for schools and the BBC, was the local court interpreter, taught classes for nightschool and prisoners, did a Spanish language tour of the City and so forth. None of which brought in much ca$h but was in line with his left of centre values which I seem to have inherited. Fortune arrived in the form of an offer by the publishers Macmillan to write the 'Mastering Spanish' self-help book, which he knocked off in 3 months and went into every branch of WH Smiths in the country, as did MS II. No idea what happened to the proceeds, as he still lives in the same unassuming suburban semi where I grew up, hopefully it is accumulating interest in a chunky trust fund somewhere ....

[sasguru]

Radium in the clock dials?

Something that caused a mutation, anyway.

[EternalOptimist]

my Dad was on Battleships and carriers then a minesweepwer in WWII. Some of the stories were brilliant.
He saw me take off from a slow start and he loved it. If he were alive today he would be scratching on the lid of his coffin

[quackhandle]

My dad has always worked in Nuclear industry so has rarely been out of work, but he had no love for Thatcher, but he saw how the Unions brought the country to its knees in the 70's so he always knew she would go all out to reduce their power if not destroy them. He's like me in that most if not all politicians are only interested in feathering their own nest.

My mother has said she felt duped by MT as she voted for her in '79 but then reneged on her pro women manifestio policies, apparently.

qh

[redgiant]

I have a strained relationship with my old man after my parents separated as he lived so far away and remarried very quickly. He made a lot of money in the 70s & 80s as a contractor (ICL mainframe developer and trainer) and then lost a lot in the 90s with various business ventures. He was never very political though.

Going back to Thatcher my maternal grandmother was a civil servant for most of her life (she ran a sub post office in a village outside Oxford) and admired Thatcher for sorting out the unions (she had a business to run and was affected each time the power went off more than most) and pushing for more modernisation of the post office. She modelled her hairstyle on Thatcher and my school mates always called her Maggie as not only did she look a bit like her but she was also such a strong character (she had to bring up two kids, look after a severely disabled husband and run a post office at the same time). I miss her very much.

[darmstadt]

Well my dad celebrated his 74th birthday yesterday and he's still working all over the world which means I have something to beat (tulip)