The Day I Realized An Old Saying Was True

Remember that saying that every little girl hears - "you'll end up marrying a guy like your dad."

I always thought that was crazy.

Don't get me wrong - I love my Dad and he will always be my hero and I miss him greatly each and every day.

Now with that said my Dad was far from perfect. Which nobody is perfect.

And growing up no one could drive me more crazy than my Dad (I mean we all had that one parent, right?) but despite that I loved him and thought he was the greatest. At the same time my Dad's love for his only daughter was limitless and he was ultimately wrapped around my little finger.

But the thought of marrying someone like my Dad??

Pssshhhh yeah right.

Impossible. My dad was one of a kind.

Or so I thought...........

The other day after work Marine and I rode to meet a man that had a truck for sale.

1999 Burgundy F150.

Since he sold his truck before he left on deployment Marine was in the market for a new vehicle. Something to drive back and forth while he's still in.

But as mentioned before Marine is a little super saver when it comes to money so his plan was to get something he could pay cash for.

Marine shakes the man's hand and they begin to discuss the truck. We go for a test drive and once done Marine once again walks around the truck, looking under the hood and discussing with the man the few minor problems the truck has.

Marine asks how much he's got to have for the truck.

The man names his price.

Marine looks at me, "What do you think?"

I think it's a great deal. But I'm also the daughter of a horse trader. I know how this works.

As I've said before I grew up on a horse farm. My parents were always buying and selling horses and often times I would go with Dad to look at potential prospects. So at an early age I was taught the importance of bluffing or as I remember my dad saying to me as a child, "Now don't go in here and start saying how much you like this horse. You do that and the price goes up. Cause they know if you like it I'm going to have to buy it."

So as trained to do I look at Marine and shrug my shoulders in a disinterested manner, "It's ok."

He looks at me a minute in silence then purses his lips and turns back to the man and makes an offer.

The guy counters and Marine shakes his hand and I head to the car to get the money.

I take the extra money out of the envelope. No need letting the guy know Marine would have been willing to pay more.

Once the deal was done and the man was gone Marine looks at me, "So you mad I bought it?"

"No!! I think you got a great deal!" I exclaim happily.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, you fix the few little issues and clean it up and you could sell it and make money."

He sighs with relief, "Yeah I think so to. I thought you didn't think so cause when I asked you seemed to not really like it."

I start laughing.

"We gotta work out a code word," He continues.

With a smile I say, "That was my code word."

And with that I tell Marine another story of me and Dad realizing that perhaps the old saying is true.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and little girls do grow up to marry guys like their daddies.

The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage.  A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, paws the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says, "Daddy, I need to ask you something," he is a pat of butter in a hot frying pan.  

~ Garrison Keillor ~