A Father & His Son – A post from my brother

 

Life lessons from C. Geren Roberts:

 

BE PREPARED

My favorite memories of Dad are from Little League baseball.  Before every game, we would head to the batting cage and I remember hitting balls until I was exhausted. Most of the time he would end up drilling me about 10 times in the back and that’s how I would get ready for each baseball game growing up, ha!  My Dad made it to almost every single game I ever played in, although there was one that he missed. One game when I was playing for Dr. Litman’s Dentistry, Dad was in the hospital with a staff infection in his elbow, and I wanted to play well to make him proud.  I ended up pitching a no-hitter because I wanted to make Dad happy.  Sadly for me, that was my first and only no-hitter ever pitched!   Oh well…

Dad always had my best interests at heart even though it sometimes came across the wrong way.  I’ll never forget how much he was involved, how he always had my back, and how much he wanted me to be successful.

GO BIG OR GO HOME

One time when Dad came to visit me at Harding University, our family was headed to Trail Dust, an all-you-can-eat buffet.  While in the parking lot, he had just finished eating an apple. Once he found out it was an all-you-can-eat buffet, his first reaction was “Ooh man you didn’t tell me this was an all-you-can-eat buffet, I just ate an apple!”  Needless to say, that apple didn’t stop him from eating about six plates of monkey bread.  He was so mad that he had just eaten an apple, although it was hysterical to the rest of us.

DO IT RIGHT

Dad was OCD to the extreme.  When I was probably in the fifth grade, Dad decided it would be a good idea to paint a free throw and three-point line on the driveway. So instead of just measuring 15 feet and painting a quick free throw line, Dad went up to Gifford Grade School and measured the lines on the basketball court to probably the nearest 16th of an inch.  We then taped up our driveway and spent all day painting our first set of lines. Although it took forever, it truly was amazing.  Every other year or so, Dad and I would be out there all afternoon taping the driveway and repainting to make sure that we didn’t lose those painted lines.  One of the biggest things I learned from this memory is that if you’re going to do it, then you should do it right.  Don’t ever do anything halfway, do it all to the best of your ability.

THE BEST IS YET TO COME

I promise you have never met a man watch TV with his eyes closed as much as my Dad did.  Just when you thought he was asleep, you would go to take the remote out of his hand, and what do you know, he opens his eyes and squeezes the remote, “Hey, I was watchin that!”  And then you have to wait it out a little longer, just hoping that he finally relinquishes the remote.

LOOKING FORWARD

Another of my favorite memories of Dad is organizing our baseball card collection.  We started collecting full sets of Topps baseball cards in 1988.  Every year, we would go to Gordyville and buy a complete unopened box set of baseball cards.  Once we got home, we would spend ALL afternoon organizing the cards.  We alphabetized every set by team name, then by the last name of the player.  Yes, it took forever.  Did I already mention that Dad was obsessive compulsive?  Gradually we started buying previous years so my set now includes every Topps baseball card from 1982-2000.  Although it took forever, it was a memory I’ll never forget.  Every year I looked forward to the day we would go buy the new set, it was awesome.

 

LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY

From going to church 3 times a week, to playing catch in the backyard, from learning so much from him in Sunday School, to riding bikes on the way to school and around town, to being embarrassed that he was filming everything, to a knock down drag out game of 1 on 1 on the best basketball court in the world, to breaking the garage door windows with basketballs numerous times and him never being upset, to fishing in Canada, to catching crawfish in the creek, to always catching the biggest fish regardless of where we were fishing, to vacationing all the way from Colorado to New York City, to helping coach our Rantoul Falcon peewee football team since I was in the 3rd grade, to giving me the keys to his 1970 Chevelle, to loving our family and those around him with all that he had, there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think about my Dad.  I miss my Dad every day and can’t wait to see him again.

 

 

 

Dad taught us all very important lessons along the way and I’ll forever be indebted to the faith he passed down to me.  God is and always will be first.  Yes, we need to be prepared, and I’m not talking about being prepared for a baseball game.  Yes, we should go big, for if you’re going to do something, then you should do it right.  All.the.time.  Yes, the best is yet to come, and I’m not talking about what’s coming up next on the television.  Yes, like a kid looks forward to buying a set of baseball cards and spending some quality time with his father, we should be looking forward to the day we get to be with our Heavenly Father.   Faith, hope, and love will continue on forever, but the greatest of all is love.

I love you, Dad.