Fatherly Comparisons

For guys who remember when their dads would wear dark socks and sandals, or other embarrassing things when we were young, there'll always be old photos to scour that might shed light on whether ultimately our fathers were cool before we came along.

When I started wearing Birkenstocks in high school and winter came, I wore socks and thought, well, utility and comfort win the day and maybe dad was on to something.

I've seen enough pictures of my dad to know that he wasn't a dork, like this one of him lounging in cut-offs:



Now, I did recently find a collection of pictures from a trip that Corrie and I took, pictures from a time where my dad and I are roughly the same age. I can imagine our kids looking at these and saying, Gah...what a dork!



Maybe I'm too hard on myself. That was from Europe, when my only other pair of pants was probably drying in some hostel bathroom. And those zipper-legged pants make anyone look ridiculous. Plus there are a few pictures, like this next one, where it works out a little better, and I look like just a hairy tourist.