A Son's Gratitude for His Trucker Dad
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Bobby Goines Jr. sometimes rides with his dad on hauls for Chattanooga-based J.M. Enterprises, and learns about some of the other people and places in the world. For Father’s Day in June, young Bobby, a sixth-grader at Bess T. Shepherd Elementary School, wrote about his father’s principles and their lives together.
Here is the winning essay:
I share my dad with two other brothers and he teaches us how to love each other also. When I grow up I want to be just like him. He has a good heart and he loves people. Some of my friends don’t have their dads at home like I do, so he takes them places, too, and spends time teaching them things. He teaches me positive things about myself when I don’t do so well sometimes. My dad is a Christian so he teaches me a lot about the Bible and right and wrong choices. Daddy says that he teaches me so much stuff, so I can be a good daddy when I grow up.
Before we moved to where we live now, we used to live in some projects and I could never go outside to play because the neighborhood was dangerous. My dad worked very hard to save up enough money to buy a house, because he wanted me to have a yard and a safe neighborhood to play in. When we moved to a house, he got me all the things he said he would, like a bicycle and big basketball rim to go outside. Sometimes when I ask for stuff I don’t always get it, but Dad makes sure that I have food to eat, clothes to wear, shoes to wear and my school stuff.
On warm sunny days, my dad takes us to the park. Me, my dad, my mom and my brothers would play a game of Not It between the mazes or sometimes fly a kite. When the weather is real hot in the summer we have a super water gun fight, and it is so cool! In the wintertime, if it snows, we go outside and have a snowball fight until we are freezing cold.
I don’t know if a lot of dads know how to cook, but my dad can. He showed me how to cook some easy foods. My favorite food he cooks is macaroni and cheese. My mother is going to college to be a teacher, so sometimes Dad does what Mom does. He washes our clothes and he cleans up the house sometimes.
When he goes to work he drives an 18-wheel truck and sometimes lets me ride with him if I’m out of school. He is teaching me how to read maps and teaching me stuff about other states.
My dad is the best! I love him with all my heart, because he taught me just about everything I know, like: riding a bike, flying a kite, roller skating, fishing, playing basketball, playing baseball, swimming, and how to do better on my homework. Whenever I am in a program at school, he does his very best to come and he makes videos with the camcorder.
I feel very lucky to have a dad like him because he is always wanting me to do my best at whatever I do and if I don’t do too good, he does not get mad at me.
— Bobby Goines Jr.
Reprinted with permission of the Chattanooga Times-Free Press.
