MY DAD IS REALLY GREAT

MY DAD IS REALLY GREAT

- LOIS OSBORN

Ron is a new boy in my class. I like him a lot, but sometimes he makes me mad. 

One day I showed the kids at school a book my dad had written. Then Ron had to speak up.

 "Aw, that's nothing, Harry George," he said. "You should see what my father can do. He can tear a phone book in half with his bare hands. I bet your father can't do that."

When I got home, I gave the phone book to my dad. I told him what Ron's father could do.

"How about you?" I asked.

He shook his head."I'm no strong man, Harry George." He said. I put the phone book away. He could at least have tried.

Then I remembered how once my mom and I had watched my dad climb a tall ladder, crawl up the roof, hang onto a chimney, and reach way out to rescue my kitten. We were scared my dad would fall. Maybe my dad isn't real strong, but he sure is brave. So I told Ron all about what my dad had done. 

"Aw, that's nothing, Harry George," Ron said. He was not impressed.

"My father fought in the war. He has a whole box full of medals he own for bravery."

After school, I watched my dad fix my bike. I looked at all the tools in his box. I wished they were medals.

"How come you never fought in the war?" I casually asked my dad.

"Flat feet and poor eyesight," my dad said. "They couldn't use me, I was lucky."

"Lucky?" I exclaimed. "You could've won a lot of medals. Like Ron's father."

"Ron's father?" my dad said. "Oh, I remember him. The fellow who tears up telephone books.

So he won medals, did he?"

"For bravery." I explained.

"Well, good for him," said my dad, and he shut his tool box with a bang.

Later, my dad and I finished the model plane we had been working on.

I could hardly wait to show it to Ron.

"See what my dad and I made?" I said to him. "I bet you and your father never  made anything like this."

"Aw, that's nothing, Harry George," Ron answered. "My father doesn't fool around with model planes.He flies real ones instead. The kind that take off and land on a carrier. That's dangerous stuff."

As soon as I got home, I asked my dad if he would like to be a pilot.

"I don't care that much about flying," he told me.

"Why  not?" I asked.

"Well, let's just say I feel better getting off a plane than I do getting on."

I wished he hadn't said that. I started to walk away.

"Wait a minute," said my dad. "Does Ron's father happen to be an airplane pilot?"

"Oh no," I replied. "He flies fighter jets on carriers for the Navy."

"That figures," I heard my dad mutter.

The next evening, there was  a Guardian's meeting at school. I went with my mom and dad.They looked at my work and talked to my teacher.

"Is Ron's father here?" my dad casually asked her.

"Harry George is really impressed with him. I'd like to meet him."

My teacher looked at me in surprise.

"You must be thinking of someone else." She said. "Ron's father died years ago."

I walked home like a robot. I couldn't talk or think.

"How could Ron do that to me?" I asked. "We were friends.Why did he have to lie to me?"

"Maybe it didn't seem like lying to Ron." My dad said.

"All that junk about tearing the telephone book," I said, "and the medals, and flying a plane.

All lies! I believed him. I can never be friends with him again. Never!"

I turned my back and walked out of the kitchen. I wondered what it would be like to have a make-believe father instead of a real dad like mine. I'm glad my dad is real.

The next morning I told my dad that maybe I'd be friends with Ron after all. That's how the three of us began doing things together.

At recess today, I heard Ron say to some kids, "Harry George's father takes us fishing. He knows ten different ways to make paper airplanes. Harry George's father is really something."

Yes, that's my dad, all right. He is really something!

For Solved Exercises of this lesson click on the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJTgYmbQGweWg7n1IMh3PCA/join