erin taylor designs: happy father's day

daddy with his girls

Happy Father's Day! I just wanted to take a little time to reflect on a recent interaction with my father...

Actually I bought a recycled leather watchband from Fisticuffs. I had no watch face to put on the band. I knew exactly where I wanted to go ask for one, though....so a few weeks after procuring my lovely recycled band, I was over at my parents, and was wearing my naked band, and asked Dad if he happened to have a watch which he no longer needed. I felt like it would add to the vintage look, plus be more meaningful, and save me money and energy looking around for a watch...

So we moseyed into this room where he has what I like to refer to as his "treasure chest." Lord knows what all's in it. I knew there would be a couple of watches, easy...first he pulled out the mickey mouse watch with a red band. I wore that all through high school...then he stumbled across a digital watch [which is more his signature style watch nowadays] and then found this old looking vintagey Timex watch which looked like it could have maybe been grandaddy's?

Well, I decided I wanted that watch face, and we were both sitting down at the table, attacking this poor watch with straight pins and paperclips trying to separate the band from the watch...well, as we were trying to do that, dad mentioned this was the watch he wore while we live in Charlotte, when I had just been born, and that it was his last "mechanical" watch before he went digital. so that meant even more to me.

After we finally switched watchbands, he explained that it was a wind-up watch, and wound it for me, fixing it to the accurate day and time...it was in those 20 minutes or so, talking about a simple watch and working with him to switch watchbands, that I feel like I really bonded to Dad. I know he is nostalgic about things, like I am - and so I know it meant a lot for him to give one of his watches to me. and it means a lot to me to be wearing it, especially since it is as old as me, from when we lived in NC. Plus we got to bond, and I enjoy when he gives me tidbits of his "back in the day" days...