For Father's Day...

There are many great moments I can think of concerning my parents. As this is Father's Day, I think one moment involving my dad would be the traditional aspect of a father steadying and running behind a boy on a bicycle for the first time. I learned to ride a bicycle on my older brother's tall, heavy bike. I was too short, my legs weren't long enough to jump down to secure a stance stop without receiving some male pain because there was a long bar at the top of its frame. So, if I needed to dismounted, I would have to angle it into a stop and often it was so heavy that it would fall and crunch my skinny bones. It was no small banana-seat bike. So, to learn to ride on it posed real threats to pain, but great trust that it was achievable. Thus, support was crucial. I can still see my father running behind me, keeping me balanced until I figured how to do it and took off down the alley in Worland, Wyo., in solo flight. And really, though I only understood it later, that scene was a metaphor for where my father would be for the rest of his life and for decades of my life--supporting me, standing behind me, helping me to get to my destinations. His name: Leslie J. Roberts, 1915-1989. Happy Father's Day!