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  4 0 My mom is from Northern Minnesota, and all of her family except her ended up living nearby. They all get to spend major holidays at my grandparents' house (on a beautiful private lake in the country). My mom moved across the country with my dad and has lived in the Northwest (near his parents) for the majority of her adult life (Oregon, northern Idaho, and, for the last 15 years, Spokane). As a result of this major move and my parents' financial position, my mom only rarely (once every 5-6 years) gets to see her family or visit her home. When we were kids, we would get to make this rare trip as an all-out cross-country drive, because, being a family of six, there was no way to afford airfare. Likewise, we were often in a beater which would break down or overheat on the way. We'd camp or all pile into a single motel room (sneakily so as not to alert the management that there were six of us in a two-bed room). As you can imagine, this was a tiring and stressful trip. On one of these trips, when I was about 11, we stopped in some tiny town in (I think) Montana to have lunch. We went to the grocery store to get sandwich-making supplies and took our picnic to a local park to eat. As we were eating and stretching our legs, we noticed a wall covered in spray-painted graffiti. One of the tags was a large red swastika. I was keenly aware of both the historical and current significance of the swastika. I was a kid who was fascinated (and horrified) by the hatred and ideology that had conceived of and built the concentration camps of the Nazi state- an interest which had been sparked by reading The Diary of Anne Frank, continued in a 20 page research paper for my fifth-grade independent project, and solidified for life by my acquaintance with Spokane's only living concentration camp survivor, Eva Lassman. As a child (from ages 0-6), I had lived in northern Idaho near the site of an infamous Neo-Nazi compound. Seeing that swastika so boldly and casually displayed in a small-town American park was a pretty serious and gut-wrenching moment for me. And my parents' response was all that I can hope to one day live up to as a parent. My mom and dad discussed with all four of us kids (ages 11-24) what we thought we should do about this (the idea that we would simply leave it there and not discuss was it was never even considered). We decided that it had to be painted over. So, my father piled us all back into the car, drove us back into that unfamiliar town, and found a hardware store. He went in, bought several cans of gray spray paint, and drove us back to the park. Then he got us all out of the car, climbed up the embankment to the wall, and sprayed over that swastika until it was invisible. I can certainly attest that my dad made mistakes as a parent- but his constant willingness to stand up for what he believes in (Remind me to tell you the story about the Vietnam War, conscientious objection, and Leavenworth Stockade sometime.) is something he taught me for which I will forever be grateful. He showed me as a child that having the courage of our convictions is something we must do even when no one is going to know about it, even when its effect may be small, even when its price or inconvenience may be large. Sphinx answered in Other Family & Kids 11 months ago | Report 2 comments by Russ Campbell, NWEBS and Sphinx… 1 0 Thank you for participating. What a great story about your Dad, and also how your family worked together to make a difference. P.S. I am sure you may already know this but there have been some relatively recent additions to the books in print about Anne Frank and her writings also. This one has additional fiction work she wrote: Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex A comprehensive work all of the various editions of the released diary including the complete work (and some of her fiction): The Diary of Anne Frank: The Revised Critical Edition This one has been out for 20 years but I did not know about it: Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family by Miep Gies also among others" Anne Frank in the World by Anne Frank House Russ Campbell, NWEBS commented 11 months ago | Report 0 0 Thanks for asking the question- thinking about my good stories was a lot of fun. Sphinx commented 11 months ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 0 My dad runs a small construction company. As kids, we had crazy bad nightmares (which is probably common). I was especially afraid of monsters (all kinds of creatures waiting to get me in the shadows). When I was growing up, my dad was a pretty gruff former marine/helicopter mechanic, beer-drinking, NRA-lovin, rightwing guy. But he came up with the best solution to protect us!! (This fantastical story wouldn't have been so surprising coming from my Hippie Liberal mom, but from dad?!?) He told us that he had rounded up all the monsters into his dump truck and driven them over to The Monster Woods. There he put them in this monster wildlife preserve, where they could live out their days but couldn't hurt us anymore. It totally worked for me, and gave an added sense of awe whenever I looked at the dump truck in our side yard. I thought my dad was pretty powerful, too!! (Years later, I learned that my younger sister wasn't buying this story. While she believed dad had rounded up SOME of the monsters, she felt there were always more critters out to get her. *sad*) Tracy M answered in Other Family & Kids 11 months ago | Report 1 comment by Russ Campbell, NWEBS… 0 0 Thank you for participating. When we are little our Dads appear so powerful. How wonderful when they use that power to make us feel safe. Later when we become adults they may look smaller in stature but still have great power for us wrapped in the memory of their love as it was expressed in many large and small ways. Russ Campbell, NWEBS commented 11 months ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 0 Years ago, out in the San Juan Islands my dad was fishing with our good family friend, a well-known foodie / chef / cookbook author / restaurateur. Going for Blackmouths (immature Coho salmon), and they were SLAYING 'em. Fish after fish, after fish, but they were all about an inch too small. My dad, ever the honest citizen kept throwing them back. Our friend, the chef thought this was total bullshit. This is the kind of fresh seafood foodies cream their pants for, and my dad was just tossing 'em back because they weren't regulation size. So our foodie friend put his foot down and said "we're keeping these goddamn fish" and making grilled salmon. so what if they're an inch too small? My dad capitulated, but insisted they only keep the daily limit of two per person. He made sure everybody onboard the boat only kept their legal limit of illegal fish. soundslikepuget answered in Other Family & Kids 11 months ago | Report 1 comment by Russ Campbell, NWEBS… 0 0 Thank you for participating. I like the fishing stories that pop up in your responses and this helps illustrate how much a part of your life it is and where you learned it as a skill and the love of it. This story strikes a chord in me about how, in some ways, I recognize that our fathers often present such a formidable example to follow. I like having the memory of my own Dad being the honest man he was and also forgiving of mistakes in others. He did tell, at times, small stories of his own growing up and difficulties he faced in his life that helped form his character as a man. One favorite story expounded on the complications that cascaded from making a mistake, and then a lie to cover it, and then trying to correct it over many steps. The tale was told (in my memory) after dinner one night as we sat at the table (and in later years also when we asked for a retelling) and ended with uproarious laughter all around and my father having difficulty finishing as he guffawed with tears running down his cheeks. It was one of those stories that supports the axiom of "Someday we will look back on this and laugh." Russ Campbell, NWEBS commented 11 months ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 0 *How my Dad took care of me during the day when I was a baby-preschooler, because my Mom worked at the Bank of Seattle during the day, and Dad was on the night shift at Boeing. He was building our house, so he'd bring me up to the shop and let me pound nails and play in the sawdust piles while he worked (Mom made him promise I'd wear earphones, so my hearing today is still good). *The look on my Dad's face when I surprised him at a Camp Fire event in Seattle when I was going to college in Idaho. I got a ride to the Fauntleroy with a friend, walked on the ferry, and walked 13 miles from the ferry dock to the south end of Vashon through the night to surprise him there the next day. *How my Dad called me at college once and left me a "just to say I love you" message on my machine, which I still have. After I went through a bad breakup, he also picked out a few random books on my Amazon wish list and sent them to me on Valentine's Day, just out of the blue. Sacrelicious answered in Other Family & Kids 11 months ago | Report 1 comment by Russ Campbell, NWEBS… 0 0 Thank you for participating. Great vignettes and images of the connection between you and your Dad. 13 miles, wow! Russ Campbell, NWEBS commented 11 months ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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