Poopoo Padooskoo and other stories

When my son was born I had to learn how to be around little ones in a big hurry as most young fathers do. I really had never been around kids much up until I was about 27 and I had no clue how to act.

One of the bigger details of life with young kids is getting them to bed.

Our girls were good sleepers, but our son was not. He still isn't to this day and he's 20 years old.

It was a chore getting Tyler to go to sleep every night.

When he got a little older, I had to try to get him to sleep by reading him a book, or telling him a story.

I will say that I didn't really know any stories, so I had to learn to make up a yarn or two. It didn't take long before I was quite the story teller, at least in my son's eyes.

I often created larger than life characters that were almost super human in strength and character.

One of Tyler's favorites that he enjoyed hearing a lot was Truck driver Nick.

Nick was a guy that drove his big rig around and helped others in need, saving life after life along the highways.

He was larger than life much the same was as Pecos Bill or Paul Bunyun. A real hero for the people and humble as could be.

There were several reasons for these stories. Obviously, one big one was to get Tyler sleepy. Another reason was to spend quality time with my son. But, I also told him stories of characters that I wanted to be like and I wanted as most dads probably do, for my son to think of me as a hero figure.

Another favorite story was Poopoo Padooskoo.

One night I wanted to get Tyler more involved with the story telling and asked him to name the main character. Poopoo was the first thing that popped out of the three year old's mouth. I told him that ole Poopoo needed a last name and Padooskoo came out rather quickly.

As you can imagine, I had to come up with something rather quickly that would match a name like Poopoo Padooskoo.

Poopoo became a major league baseball player that earned his nickname as a young boy by pooping in his pants as a base runner when he tried very intensely to beat a throw to first base.

Yep, ole Poopoo became a fairly regular story that I liked to tell young Tyler.

There were many more.

But, I am reminded of the relationship between a young boy and his father. As a really young boy, nobody is much greater than your father. Nobody is bigger, nobody is better and your father is indeed larger than life.

The dad is a real hero to a really young boy.

Some day when a boy grows that same hero becomes an embarrassment and a fool. Dad is not cool anymore.

I am reminded of the movie Big Fish where the son becomes ashamed of his father and his tales.

Really, the son's perception of his father is actually a bit more realistic as he learns that his father is no super hero but just a human being that makes mistakes and lots of them.

I am no super hero and I am a human being and I do make lots of mistakes and then some.

But, Poopoo Padooskoo lives on and I hope my son has a son some day and he remembers Truck driver Nick and Mr Padooskoo and the many other stories we shared.