Scott Burroughs is the police chief of the Port Aransas Police Department.
A few weeks ago, I was able to share some “mom-isims” with you for Mother’s Day. Those of you that were lucky enough to grow up with a strong father figure in your life know that “isims” are not unique to mom’s; just like their partners, dads also have a distinct set of “isims” that they impart on their children.
I grew up in a time when parents had a “spare the rodspoil the child” disciplinary philosophy. Although my dad was not a violent person, he was large in stature and had a very intimidating presence. It didn’t help that, when necessary, he would make sure that when I misbehaved, I was not spoiled. When I had kids of my own, he would joke “you should never strike a child except out of anger or self-defense.”
In retrospect, the fear of the spanking was usually much worse than the actual spanking itself. He used this scare tactic to teach me about the concept of time travel. “Son, if you don’t watch your mouth, you’re going to wake up in the middle of next week” and “Disrespect your mother again, and I’m going to put you to sleep for the last time” were both fairly common “isims” when my vocal cords were working faster than my brain.
My dad had several other “isims” related to time. “If you’re only five minutes early; you’re late.” If you can’t make the time to do something right in the first place, what makes you think you will have time to fix it later?
Speaking of time, when I was a teen, I occasionally missed curfew. It didn’t matter when I finally returned to the house, he was always up to make sure that I had gotten home safe. Looking back, one of his favorite “isims” may have, subliminally, inspired my career path.
As I am typing this, I am smiling to myself as I hear his voice unknowingly predicting my future; “The only people out at this time of night are cops and crooks, and I don’t see your badge.” When I was a patrol officer, I would often use some variation of that philosophy when confronting suspicions characters in the middle of the night. It turns out my dad was right, most of them were crooks.
When he didn’t agree with my intellectual prowess, my dad would ask a few simple questions to put me on the right track. “Where do you think you are going this time of night?” and probably the most common question he asked me over the years “What in the heck were you thinking?”
Perhaps my dad’s most powerful isim wasn’t an, isim at all, but a hex. When we called to tell my folks that Shirlene was pregnant with our first son, dad replied “Congratulations, I hope growing up he is just as mean and rotten as you were.” I don’t know if my dad was vested with mystical powers, but I do know that for the next ten years, Shirlene would call him several times a month and plead for him to remove the curse.
Happy Father’s Day to all of you dads reading this. If you ever doubt that your dad imparted some of his “isims” on his children; just “go ask your mother.”
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