Dads and Dreams

When I was a kid, I loved acting. Loved it. I went to some acting camp when I was 12 and the teacher told me I had talent and I should pursue it further. And I did. I auditioned and got roles in numerous plays. I was in an acting group for a while. I won awards in junior high and high school. And I would go to rehearsals five times a week.

And my dad would take me to everyone of the,.

My dad is an amazing man. Someone I know extremely well and also someone I do not know at all. It is hard to explain. I know a little about his childhood. He was born in Russia and moved around until he met my mom and came to America in 1963. He learned English through television and listening to others. By the time he had my brother, he was already settled in a field of helping fix and design textile machines. And of course, I could be very wrong about a lot of this.

But when I was born, my dad was a little older. Both him and my mom were extremely fluent in English and that is all they ever spoke in the house. Every part of America was emphasized and I truly learned what it was to love America. My dad loved sports. Baseball was not his passion but he could talk about it for hours. Tennis, boxing, and soccer were his sports of choice. I could never understand how he could watch tennis or soccer for hours, but he did. Chess was also his passion. He was ranked in the US. I know this because his name was always in Chess Life magazine. Yes, this was before the internet.

But my older brother got to see a different side of my dad than I did. If you hear his stories, they are much more different than mine. What I remember most about my dad is that he would support and help with every passion I ever had.

With acting, he took me to every rehearsal. He would help me with my lines. He would get out of work early (Which was really not an easy thing at all for him) to take me to a rehearsal or to watch a play. He would build my self esteem for acting. And I loved acting for it.

I would collect sports cards. He would take me to card shows every weekend and help me sell cards to dealers. The junk wax era was something else. Overproduction and overpriced future stars. Hey, kind of like today. But my dad would take me to card shows every weekend to buy and sell. he would help me sort my Gregg Jeffries, Wally Joyner, and Bo Jackson cards to sell and then move on to Ben McDonald and Todd Van Poppel cards.

He supported every dream I ever had. When I wanted to be a comedian, he supported it. When I wanted to own a card shop, he supported it. Some were short lived dreams. It did not matter, he would always support it. And I remember that.

I stopped acting after high school. I got into restaurant management in my early 20’s leaving no time for anything other than working to move up. I started a family in my early 30’s. Everything has moved fast in my mind although it really hasn’t. I am almost 50 now. Dreams are no longer a reality for me.

But my son’s dream is to be a college and pro baseball player. If you look at the odds for everyone, it is slim. But I support everything he does. I pick him up from practice and I go to every game whether he plays or not. I sit and listen for hours about a BBCore bat that is juiced or how he wants a bat for his birthday this week but also wants another bat and another. He tells me about a person who is a Perfect Game 8 and why he would do better in categories and I listen to every single thing he says. He is a smart kid, valedictorian of his grade last year. And I support his baseball dream.

My daughter found a new love in archery. She already loves music, which she is an amazing viola player, and reading. She is also a really good student. I do not know how long archery will last with her, but for now it is something I back up. And will do whatever she needs to keep her going.

I guess the one main thing I learned for my dad is that dreams are a reality. I think if I kept up acting I would have been in films. My love for sports cards and customer service is why I am an Ebay top seller with passion for those who collect. But this is not about me. This is about learning things from my dad that I am passing on to my kids. I refuse to ever let them believe that their dreams cannot come true.

And I will help them every step of the way.

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