Father To Father
June 21, 1975
Dear Dad,
Today I watched my daughter play her last soccer game of the season and i now know how you must have felt while watching me in sports.
Dad, I may have always shown you how much I loved you, but I will always appreciate what you did on raising me. I think that each father tries to raise his children the way he was raised, as best he can. I told you I married young so that my kids can enjoy doing things with a young father, and because I had missed out on some of the things you and my older brother did, such as wrestling each in the middle of the room. Now I feel that you gave me something that a younger father may not have had. That something was an understanding of what is important in life. That something was a sense of values, independent of others, and a love for the simple things, like pride in ones children.
I guess that's why I get a lump in my throat and a pain in my chest when I see my little girl out on the field, running he legs off and playing her heart out, and crying when she has to say goodbye to a teammate, whom she will not get to play with again. Sometimes i get so proud of her I burst in to tears. I guess because it makes me think of my years in sports and of "My Dad" on the sidelines cheering me on. It makes me sad to think of all the kids who don't have Dads on the sidelines.
I guess what this letter is all about is to say "Thanks Dad" and "I love you".
Your Son,
Ray Bouldin
