On Being a Dad
When he was 15 years old, Dad talked his father into taking off work and coming to one of his games. Leon was “energized” and had a great game.
“After the game, I bounded up to my dad and asked what he thought of how I played,” Dad recalled. “He told me he had run into some guy he used to work with, visited with him all during the game, and did not see any of it.
“I was crushed, totally devastated. I wanted so much for him to be proud of me, so his lack of interest was really hurtful. That one experience was the basis for my effort to see every possible event in sports or academics or church that my sons participated in. I hardly got to all of them, but I always inquired about the details, etc., to be darn sure they knew I cared.
“That might be the only thing I ever did well, and it was, at least in part, because my dad treated me in ways that I vowed I would never do to my children.”
“After the game, I bounded up to my dad and asked what he thought of how I played,” Dad recalled. “He told me he had run into some guy he used to work with, visited with him all during the game, and did not see any of it.
“I was crushed, totally devastated. I wanted so much for him to be proud of me, so his lack of interest was really hurtful. That one experience was the basis for my effort to see every possible event in sports or academics or church that my sons participated in. I hardly got to all of them, but I always inquired about the details, etc., to be darn sure they knew I cared.
“That might be the only thing I ever did well, and it was, at least in part, because my dad treated me in ways that I vowed I would never do to my children.”