Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Having a Daddy


I'm so excited because today I finally overcame inertia, not to speak of gross procrastination.  I should get a prize for procrastination.  Today I wrote the introduction for my new book, (working title), Every Girl Needs a Good Daddy.  It's about a girl growing up during the Dust Bowl days in southwestern Kansas and how her daddy marched every step of the way with her.

Anyway, when I finished writing the introduction to this new book, a story popped into my head about girls and their daddies.

A few years back, I was working in the inner city with some kids in a friend program.  I was supposed to go there and help them individually with their schoolwork, but I decided to run a little gifted class instead.  I would have five or six students and, of course, they were eager and capable of doing anything I asked of them.

One day, I decided to teach them how to speak in front of a group.  In order for them to get the idea of what to do, I demonstrated.  The topic was "A Favorite Person" and I went to the front of the room, surveyed the group until I had eye contact with each child, then proceeded to talk about my father for three minutes.

When I finished, they clapped and I bowed, then said, "Now who wants to be next?"  Vanessa approached the front of the room, surveyed the group until she had eye contact, then began:  "Miz Hughes, do you mind if I say something before I start?"

"Of course, Vanessa.  Go ahead."

"Well, I just wanted to thank you for telling us about your daddy because none of us have a daddy so we don't know what it would be like."

"You're welcome," was all I could manage to reply.