TimmyDaddy

By Tim Sullivan

On Father’s Day

I called a brainstorming meeting with the children on the Tuesday before Mother’s Day while Kristen was at book club. Elliott suggested that instead of “wasting your money” on a bracelet I could just make one with the rubber band jewelry maker. Smart kid.

We crafted up a beauty and hid it under the bed, but then Margo was too excited to not present it as soon as Kristen got home. She redeemed herself by following through on her promise to make “big, huge, giant cards” to give mommy on Sunday along with breakfast in bed and a necklace I wasted my money on. It was low key just like my wife (says she) likes it to be.

When I was a kid I’d walk down to Gristedes Grocery to buy mom a box of Russell Stover chocolates for Mother’s Day. Of course as soon as she opened it and shared with a gaggle of nougatcrazed kids, the box was practically empty. But she had a way of stretching the moment out to give me my due for authoring such a perfect Mother’s Day notion. She would examine the piece as if trying to identify a rare bird and then check the reference card to ascertain what great treat lurked beneath the dark chocolate. As a way of saying thank you, she’d savor it like it was the most delectable morsel she had ever encountered.

For my old man on Father’s Day, it was a tin of Planter’s mixed nuts. The nuts that were typically found in our kitchen were Pathmark brand and most unfortunately, still in their shells. We had a stable of medieval implements like nutcrackers, sharp picks and a small hammer to aid and abet us in liberating the nuts from their armor but it was no task for the meek. The rush of excitement at actually cracking one open would be tempered by the distinct lack of salt and the inedible portions we discovered while chewing. So, come Father’s Day, I’d imagine my dad’s thought process to be something along the lines of: OK…these ties and homemade cards are sweet but where is the curly headed one with those luxuriously unshelled nuts?

It still feels somewhat surreal to be on the receiving end of Father’s Day affections these days. All I really want is the new Jason Good book on parenting. I may buy it for myself if I can’t wait that long and Kristen will seethe because I’m always jumping her gift ideas, but I like her to feel challenged. I do expect the cards to be big, huge, giant and awesome.

By the way, did I ever explain how the TimmyDaddy name came about? Well, Atlanta friends call me Tim but when I’m in the Tri-State area it often reverts to “Timmy” which magically lops off about two-thirds of the years I’ve accumulated. Anyway, when Elliott was a nascent walker-talker we were up in New Jersey visiting Kristen’s sister Mary, her husband Jim and their kids. They all call me Timmy. Elliott was just piecing words together at this point and in an all-out effort to get my undivided attention blurted out “Daddy Daddy! I mean Timmy! I mean…TimmyDaddy!”

TimmyDaddy has become something of a moniker and a raison-d’etre. I’d put it in the same category as Doc McStuffins and The Hamburglar. I am Timmy. My main function on this planet is Daddy and I am awfully privileged to be able to say that. Even though as I type this, the kids are fighting over a plastic balloon thing that is in the shape of an electric guitar and Kristen is giving me a look like how about you go fold some laundry, Mr. Raison-D’etre? I wish a very happy Father’s Day to all of the dads who know where I’m coming from.

This Month in History

Ann Taylor Boutwell

June 1, 1925: Virginia-Highland’s Fire Station #19 officially opened on the northeast corner of North Highland and Los Angeles Avenue. In 1924, the station began as a joint effort between the City of Atlanta and Fulton County. Atlanta’s chief of construction William Hansell and city engineer C.E. Kauffman approved specifications and broke ground on the building. The city appropriated $21,000 and the county $7,000. The station stands today as the city’s oldest operating station building.

June 3, 1955: Loew’s Inc., North America’s oldest theater chain, filed suit in Federal Court against Atlanta’s Board of Review for censoring the movie version of the bestselling novel, Blackboard Jungle. The film, starring Glen Ford and Anne Francis, depicted a young teacher’s experiences in an inner city vocational high school. Christine Smith Gilliam, the city’s censor chair, and her board of review contended that the movie was “immoral, obscene, and licentious.”

Later in 1955, District Court Judge Boyd Sloan ruled that Blackboard Jungle could be shown despite the ban.

June 8, 1994: Unveiled on the grounds of the Georgia State Capital was the bronze statue memorializing the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter. The seventon, 11-foot-high slab of Georgia granite is a slightly larger than real life depiction of Carter with rolled up shirtsleeves and khakis. The Plains native entered politics by serving two terms as a Georgia State Senator – from 1963 to 1967 – and one term as the 76th governor of Georgia –from 1971 to 1975. The sculpture was created by Frederick Hart, who also created the three bronze soldiers at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.

June 9, 1942: Golf legend Bobby Jones received a commission as a captain in the Army Air Force. Although a medical disability and his age of 40 did not compel him to go to war, he insisted on serving his country.

June 11, 1938: The Atlanta Housing Authority appointed Charles Forest Palmer, a real estate developer, as its first chairman. Palmer, a pioneer of slum clearance, had organized Techwood Homes, one of the first public housing developments in the United States. In 1955, Atlanta’s Tupper and Love Publishing Company published his book, Adventures of a Slum Fighter Ironically, Techwood Homes would eventually become one of the city’s worst slums and was demolished in 1996.

June 12, 1965: Ronald Lamar Yancey, the 21-year-oldson of an Atlanta postman, became the first African American to graduate from Georgia Tech. He earned his degree in electrical engineering.

June 22, 1955: Morris Brown graduate Charles Lincoln Harper died at his residence in the Old Fourth Ward. Born to former slaves, the Sparta native believed that America’s survival depended on a thorough education without regard to race, color or creed. He was former principal of Morris Brown College’s high school, the Yonge Street Evening School and Booker T. Washington, Atlanta’s first black high school. Although he stood 5 feet 4 inches tall and walked with a limp, Harper was fearless concerning human rights during the 1930s and 1940s. He served as secretary of the Black Georgia Teachers Education Association, vice president of Georgia’s branch of the NAACP, as well as president of the Atlanta chapter. Today’s Harper/ Archer Middle School at 3399 Collier Drive honors his name.

June 28, 1988: Virginia-Highland resident John Rushing Howell died of complications from HIV. Known for his compassion, Howell supported human rights, neighborhood preservation and the arts. In 1989, the John Howell Memorial Park at 855 Virginia Avenue was dedicated as a tribute to the neighborhood activist who, in the 1970s and 80s, helped fight off plans for I-485 to cut through his neighborhood. The park stands on land cleared for the road.

June 29, 1993: Georgia Lottery sales began. More than $13 million tickets sold the first day.