Trace Adkins - Just Fishin'

(Image source)

#1 Son beat me bowling last night.

When we lived in Georgia ten years ago - when the kids were small - we loved bowling.  One of my fondest memories as a Dad is a dozen six-year-olds doing the Y-M-C-A song at a Cosmic Bowl birthday party.


#1 Son is between quarters in College, and has been visiting me here in Austin at Forward Operating Base Borepatch.  It's been awesome.  It's more than just having someone here for company; we've done the things as father and son that I had almost given up hope of ever doing, in a strange time not so very long ago.  Drinking beer together.  Getting snow cones, for old time's sake.  Cooking dinner together.

These moments mean a lot to me, partly made sweeter from those lost moments in the past, partly bitter sweet from the realization that he's a man now, and there won't be as many of these.  These moments are fleeting.  Seize the day.

Trace Adkins has a song that captures the emotions of this moment.  #1 Son is grown to manhood, and I think feels this in his gut.  Those of you with smaller children are blessed with the ability to watch them while they're still outside of that flow of time.  When they still see you as Mom or Dad, not as that person who is not always who you'd like to be.

When they think they're just fishing.  Or doing the Y-M-C-A song.  Or maybe, beating you at bowling for the first time.



Just Fishin' (Songwriters: Casey Beathard, Monty Criswell, Ed Hill)

I’m lost in her there holdin’ that pink rod and reel
She’s doin’ almost everything but sittin’ still
Talkin’ ‘bout her ballet shoes and training wheels
And her kittens
And she thinks we’re just fishin’

I say, “Daddy loves you, baby” one more time
She says, “I know. I think I got a bite.”
And all this laughin’, cryin, smilin’ dyin’ here inside’s
What I call, livin’

And she thinks we’re just fishin’ on the riverside
Throwin’ back what we could fry
Drownin’ worms and killin’ time
Nothin’ too ambitious
She ain’t even thinkin’ ‘bout
What’s really goin’ on right now
But I guarantee this memory’s a big’in
And she thinks we’re just fishin’

She’s already pretty, like her mama is
Gonna drive the boys all crazy
Give her daddy fits
And I better do this every chance I get
‘Cause time is tickin’
(Yeah it is)

And she thinks we’re just fishin’ on the riverside
Throwin’ back what we could fry
Drownin’ worms and killin’ time
Nothin’ too ambitious
She ain’t even thinkin’ ‘bout
What’s really goin’ on right now
But I guarantee this memory’s a big’in
And she thinks we’re just fishin’

She ain’t even thinkin’ ‘bout
What’s really goin’ on right now
But I guarantee this memory’s a big’in
And she thinks we’re just fishin’
Yeah, aww, she thinks we’re just fishin’
We ain’t only fishin’
(This ain’t about fishin’)

The young lady in the video is Adkins' youngest daughter, Trinity.