70 Comments

I just read this over the phone to my dad. I had to speak very loudly every time your dad spoke and now I need some water.

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Love your dad and that cheered a crap morning. Thanks Tom.

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Hilarious! Once again I laughed out loud. Your Dad is hilarious! I even wondered if you’d made it up or exaggerated him as it’s so funny. Thus reminds me of funny things my Mum does - I love how you captured the humour and humanity in the everyday aspects & antics of our lives. This is where joy lies 😊😊🙏🙏

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Love this story so much, as a fellow toady. Only just discovered you late last night, too late, but listened to the whole thing anyway about abandoned houses and aging. You crack me up real good with your allsorts jumble of tactile and ephemeral. I shall read/listen on with reckless abandon. Thank you

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Thats the only way to read 😉

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The fish outline though 🤣🥹

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Wonderful ! Both the writing (have always laughed when your Dad speaks) and the Emu sketch is a masterpiece. Thank you.💚

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Thanks Joanne!

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I am fighting the urge to read this piece to my own dad, who’s long gone, and the dad beside me, and anyone who needs cheering up today. I may not win this fight. Thank you. Brilliant, kooky and so uplifting.

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Thank you for posting this. I needed a good laugh today and this just had me in tears. Now off to find more videos of Rod Hull and Emu….

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You are some peering up here some sharing up for you

C hear ring up hi Im staying

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You are some peering up here some sharing up for you

C hear ring up hi Im staying

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ALWAYS A DELIGHT TO READ (AND EVEN HEAR) ABOUT YOUR DAD!

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😂IT BLOOMIN’ WELL IS!

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this made me feel all sorts of emotions and im not sure why

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Hearing you give voice to your LOUD dad is how I've imagined him while reading your pieces yet a thousand times better! This has brightened my morning (it's still morning here in Wisconsin). And the photo you included of Ralph and The Bear --- oh my heart. Thanks for another wonderful piece!

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I had read this before

but now listening to it

was like I was in England hugging my old friend Paul

I also remembered a time when his parents

were visiting and how much I could see the shocking difference between our cultures

You here, when you bring father's voice, bring me exactly that feeling

an immense cultural difference in the manifestation of love

As Paul said me once , in my culture we touch each others life deeply , in a different way

Yes you took me there , I love England

Thank you

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Aw, thank you so much. This means a lot.

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Ah, James Herriot lives on. 'He's womitin, sor! Womitin' sumfin awful.' I hope you might appreciate how hard I had to work fighting the spell check hootnanny on this dang phone. Sent with love. Fabulous story, that.💙

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Very entertaining anecdote Tom. If nothing else - who doesn’t love a toad?! I remember the Rod H television aerial story well. I had a mental image of him actually on the roof with Emu, having a fight over the positioning of the aerial and that being the reason for the fatal fall. It still seems to me to be a fitting way for him to have gone. Cheers, M

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Laughed helplessly through all of this. (Or rather, until the sad FNs at the end.)

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Tom, this was a very enjoyable read. I was totally charmed by the story. I’m ten years older than your Dad, and I recognize in him the idiosyncrasies one develops as they age. You Dad sounds like a peach.

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You gotta love how "Loud Dad" mentions the "loud jazz". My Grandma is the same with the television. The older you get, the louder you'll get.

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