It hit me like a ton of bricks

On Father's Day I always call my dad and "chew the fat" with him about anything and everything. It always seemed as if my dad and I somehow always got in trouble together.

Sunday, June 15th 2008, 5:32 pm

By: News 9


By Christian Price, News9.coms INsite Team

On Father's Day I always call my dad and "chew the fat" with him about anything and everything.

It always seemed as if my dad and I somehow always got in trouble together.

We use to live in Lawton, and since dad was in the military, we would go fishing sometimes on Ft. Sill. When you go on post to hike or go fishing, you're supposed to check in at the wildlife office and see which area of Ft. Sill was deemed "the hot zone".

The hot zone is the area war maneuvers are taking place for a certain period of time. These maneuvers would consist of everything from the air force doing bombing runs to artillery practicing precision techniques (blowing up a side of a mountain).

One night, dad got off work and came home where I had gathered up our fishing supplies. We loved night fishing, so we always had a little extra stuff to take along.

One of our favorite lakes was Lake George. At the time, not a lot of G.I.'s knew of Lake George, so there were never a lot of fishermen to contend with. We were always able to get our favorite spot, which was right on the beach, at the bottom of a 25 foot hill.

On this particular night, the fish were not biting, so we were just hanging out, gazing up at the stars and dad was educating me on constellations. (My dad's passion is stargazing at the heavens and studying the constellations.)

Dad was pointing out the constellation Orion when, out of nowhere, we heard the thunder of a fifty caliber above our heads from the top of the hill we were below. Before we could even look up we felt the concussion from the blast. In an instant, all hell broke loose.

Within a fraction of a second, it seemed as if 20 to 30 fifty calibers were above us and the night sky was glowing from tracers. From across the lake we noticed different colored tracers coming towards the first set on top of our hill.

My dad, who wasn't scared at all, was upset by all the commotion because the noise from the ensuing war game was scaring off all the fish.

He took one look at me and noticed I was a little nervous. We were sitting on the ground of the beach. He used his hand to push me backward to lie down as he did the same. He then said, "Well, I guess we're going to be here awhile. Who do you think is going to win?"

Today I started to call my dad, but then it hit me like a ton of bricks. My daddy passed away two years ago from liver cancer. I can't call him anymore.

I miss you dad. Father's Day will never be the same for me as it once was.

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