Father's Day...Watching the Wheels Go By

One thing that I enjoy doing now that I totally despised as a child was yardwork. I lived on a small farm with a big garden and an even bigger yard. Once the three of us got big enough(my brother, sister and me) it fell upon us to keep the yard mowed. I think we might have had a riding mower a few years, but it always seemed to be in disrepair or I wasn't allowed to use it. (Dad always rode it) I always had to use the push mower.(Yuck!) I think the hardest part of working the push mower was getting it to start. I only seemed to be able to pull the cord maybe halfway out and other times it wouldn't pull out but somehow lock itself down and you would fall on the ground completely annoyed at what just happened.(I'm sure that happened to many of you.) After several attempts of trying to start the mower to no avail, it's time to call in the big dogs: Dad. Well, you know Dad never had any problems cranking that mower. One pull and that motor would just roar to life and be ready to go. And off he'd go. Dad would make a couple of passes with the mower and hand it off to me. Problem solved and off he'd go, back to whatever he had been doing. But, here's the thing. He didn't leave. He would stay and watch me mow the grass. I'd look up and he'd be watching the wheels on the lawn mower turn. I would make the turn and head back the other way and I'd sneak a glimpse and he would be watching me. I'd make the turn again to come back and he'd be watching the wheels. (I didn't think wheels could be so exciting.) I used to tease him about watching the wheels and usually ended with a harump for my efforts. As this Father's Day approaches, I think there was more to it than just watching the wheels go by. I would like to think he was watching me and saying, "that's my girl, and I am proud of her. She is going to grow up and do marvelous things." Or maybe something similar to that. If he were here now, that might be something for me to ask, or maybe not. The simplest thing would be for me to say is, "keep watching the wheels Dad, keep watching the wheels."