Double Windsor

Photographing an assignment earlier today, I came to two sudden realizations...

1. Having your father (a.k.a. "Pops" in my case) around to look after you is a wonderful thing and something to never be taken for granted.

2. It's probably harder to explain to someone how to tie a tie than it is to actually try it for your first time!
I visited the Oak Terrace/J.B. Harville Alternative School in Shreveport for the "Project Save a Kid" program directed toward at risk males. They started the day off learning about the game of golf and then turned their attention to the finer points of tying different styles of knots for ties. I dont think I knew how to tie a tie at that age either, but my Pops was always around if I needed to ask. Some of these kids dont have that at home.

So that brings me to my list of "Top Things I Learned from My Pops"
1. How to tie a Windsor knot
2. The proper way to punt a football. I still remember standing in the street in front of our house as he showed me where the laces go.
3. A devastating fade-away jumper, a behind-the-back-no-look-pass and a mean crossover...even if my six-foot-four "little" brother is still better at it than me...I was a much better baseball player.
4. Laying out for a diving catch down the third base line. Many a night was spent knocking down his ground balls.
5. Patience. Well except when fishing and bowling. Neither of us seemed to have much patience for the other in those!
6. A second language...Pops, my brother and I developed a special language when describing, well, pleasing attributes of the opposite sex.
7. The beauty of a good Western. My wife regularly and sarcastically thanks my dad for my love of Westerns because she has to suffer through me watching them on Encore Westerns.
8. How to be an objective sports fan. I hate homers...you know, the guy who refuses to see the play as it actually happened, even though they showed the replay ten times from five different angles?
9. How to blame it on the dog. Well, we didnt have a dog, so it usually ended up on little bro, aptly nicknamed "Stinky Doo" by none other than Pops himself...a clever ploy.
10. The greatness of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. We watched with pops dozens of times and I still have the nickname of "Chief" from dad's favorite flick.

Of course there's plenty more I learned from the Pearson patriarch.