[Royle9]

I cant wait to start my own memories with either a son or daughter in the close future, once we tie the knot in September 2016 the fiance say's its game on!

Now in my early 30's I've got a share of "dad" stories to tell about my own father. Like most here I could probably share thousands but I'll share the one that "onions" me the most because I found out about it long after my childhood. My dad's father was never around his entire life, dad moved out on his own at the age of 11 , his mother died when he was 24 and so he's done everything for the 3 of us to make sure our lives are better then his was growing up.

Never grew up "wealthy" like most kids, none of us realize that as a young boy or girl we just assume everything is wonderful. Christmas in the early 1990's I was around 8 and received a GT Noma Snow racer and thought it was the BEST gift ever, bragging about it to my friends, dad brought me to the hill every day all winter I'm certain.

What I found out after was mom and dad had literally $13.00 for Christmas Dinner/Gifts and could not make it work. They spent $10.00 on groceries and dad took the last 3 and put it in a VLT as a "chance" and ended up winning upwards of $1200 bucks. They took that money bought the 3 of us kids gifts, put money in our bank accounts and nothing on themselves. We had no idea we were literally hours away from getting nothing, oblivious to the struggles my parents were faced with going into the holiday season and still profited greatly.

Now I take my old man on a fishing trip to the west coast every year, I can honestly say he's my best friend and I cherish the time we are able to spend together as I'll never be able to repay him for everything he's done for me.