From Dad's File Cabinet

The last time I was at my parents' house, my dad and I started reminiscing about our time together in the YMCA Father/Daughter program, called Indian Princesses.  (It is now called Y-Princesses.)

We joined when I was in kindergarten and continued through third grade.  We moved on to the Pathfinders Father/Daughter program for fourth through sixth grade.  In both programs, we had a weekly evening meeting, a monthly event or field trip, an annual banquet, and usually two camping trips a year.  It was awesome.  My dad had traveled a lot for work when I was young, so it was wonderful to have that time together.

It didn't take long for my dad to take on a leadership role within our group.  He led meetings, planned events, and was on various committees, always striving to make the program better.  He was totally and completely committed to planning events and activities that would be fun for both the daughters and their dads.

As we were talking about some of our favorite memories, he went to the file cabinet and pulled out a quiz that he had created.  There were 25 questions for each girl and man to answer, first about themselves and then about their father or daughter.  This is from 1982, when I was 10.   

Wow - talk about a walk down Memory Lane! I love seeing my cursive writing and reading my answers about myself and my dad.  I remember loving Laverne & Shirley, Monopoly and Sprite.  I still don't like mushrooms (though I hate seafood far more) and I still order my steaks medium rare.  I remember that red was my favorite color back then (though it isn't now).  

It's my answers about my dad that surprise me more.  How on earth did I say he has no allergies, when he is hideously allergic to down?  I can remember visiting hotel rooms where he could hardly breathe even after the down pillows were banished.  And how did I not remember that he loved reading Popular Mechanics and watching 'Fight Back with David Horowitz' when I remember that so clearly now?

I loved reading my dad's answers.  He only has two children and we were both born on the 12th (March 12, 1972 for me, July 12, 1975 for my sister), so it's not like there's a lot to keep straight.  Yet he incorrectly listed my birthday as my sister's month (July) with my birth year (1972).  Not that I should feel bad... he got his own age wrong!  (He turned 34 in May of 1982, so he would have been 33 when he wrote this, not 32.)

He had quizzes from a few other years in his file cabinet as well.  I scanned them and returned the originals.  It was fascinating seeing how our answers changed from year to year.  I'd like to start doing a quiz like this annually with Trevor.  How cool would it be to be able to pull it out 30+ years from now?  I'm so glad my dad hung onto this.