Photobooth Friday #3: Me and My Dad

I had the best time ever as a kid. My parents were young. My dad worked nights, so I had both parents at home with me all day, every day. They hardly slept. I know they tried to craft their art in quiet moments, but I was more fun to them than anything else. They must have been tired, they had to be. But all of my early memories involve playing, reading, laughing, and running around with the complete attention and devotion of both my parents. It was fun beyond fun. And my dad was the best playmate ever. My mom too, but after a while she had to attend to all that mom stuff that didn't get done while she was playing with us. So my dad kept me busy and happy. He still does.

My mom watches Zöe on Wednesday mornings, and last week my dad took the morning off so he could stay home and play too. I stood there, watching the two of them on the floor surrounded by all of my old Fisher-Price toys (the garage, the house, the castle...) and it took everything in me not to cry. Those days of my dad and I playing on the floor seem so long ago, yet here he is with Zöe and it thrills me to see things all come full circle. But then he put the King on the little potty from the house and I was laughing through the watery-sheen over my eyes, while Zöe made a pee-pee sound and giggled too.

So that's us. Me and my dad. I think it might be 1974, probably the same photo booth at the dime store downtown where I took the photos with my grandma. My favorite has got to be the first one in which, yes, he has a cigar. Total Paper Moon. We're a team, pulling a con, on the lamb from the law and loving every minute.