Dad Magazine: October Edition

by Jaya Saxena and Matt Lubchansky · October 21, 2014

DADMAG15[Image credit via Chelsea Mae]

Tags: , , ,

Related Posts

Jaya Saxena and Matt Lubchansky

Jaya Saxena and Matt Lubchansky

More from Jaya Saxena and Matt Lubchansky →

182 Comments

        1. sausagedog +15

          Circus peanuts.

          Though I’m not sure if he actually liked circus peanuts, or just liked threatening me with circus peanuts.

        2. Ethylbenzene +6

          Oh man my dad also loved those caramels with that white stuff in the middle, and also chocolate Twizzlers.

          3. jenavira +6

            Twizzlers. If my dad were left alone for too long, he’d survive entirely on Twizzlers and peanut butter.

      2. ramina +10

        I think I inherited the necco wafer loving gene from my dad. It has to be hereditary, right??

        2. octopoda +2

          I like a lot of this dad candy listed. Necco wafers, jujubees, and Good n Plentys (I also inherited black licorice liking from my dad).

      3. daisicles +13

        Oh, Smarties. Now that he doesn’t have Halloween bags to dig through to get his fix, my dad buys bags of Smarties and hoards them. Sometimes he’ll offer me a roll, like they’re something besides a roll of flavored chalk.

      4. abbeyroadmedley +12

        Oh, my god, my dad LOVES freaking Necco wafers. We were just talking about this — my mom was sure he was the only person in the world that ate them, and she had no idea how they stayed in business. My husband decided that the Necco wafer factory must have a giant framed picture of my dad up on the wall with the inscription “Our Customer.”

        He also likes a bunch of other vile candies, like black licorice and Good n’ Plenties.

        1. tragicallyludicrous +9

          Turns out, what’s keeping Necco Wafers is business is Everyone’s Dad. Even my Dad, who normally doesn’t fit into any Dad characterizations!

      5. OliviaPJones +6

        You guys, we don’t even have kids but I’m pretty sure my husband somehow sneakily became a Dad. He was already a punny monster and makes Muppets/Sesame Street references, but recently I caught him eating Necco Wafers ON PURPOSE. He also defiantly insists on liking that gross candy on the paper that always has paper stuck to it when you peel it off (does anyone know what I’m talking about)! I think they are called Dots or something.

        He also likes black licorice and thinks that black jellybeans are the best flavor!

        3. tinypaperme +4

          Candy buttons – Dots are different and equally delicious. Mmm, candy buttons! Dots! Mallow Cups! Smarties! And…and…SKYBAR!

          Does this mean I’m a Dad?

    3. sagerenee +21

      Black Licorice! Who likes that? Dads. He’s also the only person I know who likes those horrible spiced jelly beans at Easter 😛

      1. ellensemple +26

        My dad landed himself in the hospital from eating too much black licorice! Apparently it can really mess with your potassium levels, who knew?

        1. sagerenee +4

          I did not know that! I shall be sure to warn Dad. He can be a fiend with the licorice 😛

      4. twoburgers +1

        My husband LOVES black licorice. For someone who is not going to have children, he is such a total Dad.

    4. tritogeniae +6

      they just started stocking jujubes in the vending machine at work. what is that even about? No one touches them, not even the dads.

      1. 8bit Greyscale +17

        I love Jujubes. :: scuffs toe on the ground ::

        I think of them like a “chewy” jawbreaker, especially since Everlasting Gobstoppers have turned into “Candy Spheres You Can Immediately Crunch Into”. Now n Laters have NOTHIN on the tenacity of Jujubes.

        Sure, the flavor is nonexistent, but they administer a slow, steady, IV-like trickle of sugar. It’s a mellow candy fix. No sugar RUSH. More like a sugar amble, taking me back to the days when men wore onions on their belts and I’d be giddy at the prospect of being able to VOTE (ooooh, that Warren G. Harding! I’ll give him what for! ::shakes empowered fist angrily:: )

        1. tritogeniae +5

          I lied. It’s actually Jujyfruits (I had no idea they were two different things?)

          I just bought a package in order to report back to y’all, but I’m afraid I can’t speak due to my mouth being glued together. Goddamn.
          I really wish I was joking–my teeth hurt.

        2. tinypaperme +3

          My mother used to feed Jujubes to her dog when she was little. The dog used to beg for them…or, rather, he’d beg for one, struggle with it for an hour, and then come back for more, tail wagging expectantly.

        1. tritogeniae +3

          Oh, yeah. Always Dad tax. He took Almond Joys and I had to hide the bit-o-honeys from him

        2. squishycatmew +2

          Three months late, am catching up on Dad Magazine:
          In my house it was Mom, and my brother and I would find ways to hide our Snickers and only offer up a token amount. You are a grown-ass woman, buy your own Snickers! Especially once I was old enough to go out alone, and if I went with a significantly large group of friends, she would send my brother with us, so it wasn’t like she was even taking us around herself, and yet still, MOM TAX.

          (On the other hand I could sometimes trick my brother into trading me his Reese’s for Mounds and Almond Joy (I HATE coconut candy) because of our four-year age difference, and often took advantage of this, so no moral high ground here.)

      1. 8bit Greyscale +22

        My school had those a few times as a lunch treat when I was in 1st grade. I remember thinking they were actual cow tails; my eyes started to tear up as I sat down with my tray.

          1. 8bit Greyscale +19

            D’aww! 🙂

            Man, this was clearly a significant event in my life, because I really remember it. I didn’t understand how these other kids were just GNAWING away, without a care in the world. They didnt CARE that a poor cow was now in a field without its tail (which is obviously what would happen. What’s a slaughterhouse?)!

            Thankfully a duty mom saw I was upset and was able to explain the concept of “candy” (sub-type: “with metaphorical names”). I still didnt eat it the first time, though, because what if they REALLY WERE cow tails but Big Cow tricked everyone into thinking they were just candy?

            My neuroticism presented at an early age, if you couldn’t guess.

    7. BestLaidPlans +41

      My dad convinced me that I hated Snickers until I was about 12 just so he could take them all from my Halloween stash. Brilliant!!

    8. friendofdaja +9

      Anything banana-flavored, especially Now ‘n’ Laters. Who eats Now ‘n’ Laters, seriously?

      1. tinypaperme +5

        Banana-flavored things taste more like bananas than bananas do, and they always smell of the esters unit from high school chemistry class.

    10. bookwormV +1

      My dad loves Liquorice Allsorts. My siblings and I do too, though, so whenever he has them we hang around hoping he’ll share.

    11. tragicallyludicrous +8

      My dad also keeps cookies in the cabinet and eats several of them in the evening but pretends he never has dessert.

      1. EPWordsnatcher +6

        My mom is all about malted milk anything. She always gets chocolate malt shakes from Steak n’ Shake.

        My dad is a Raisinets man and I have never met another soul who eats them.

        1. squishycatmew +4

          Raisinets in movie popcorn. My mother taught me this, which I then upgraded to M&Ms because, really, raisins??

  2. nopemobile +23

    The fanny pack + short shorts combo oh my god. There are definitely some pictures of my dad in the 80s sporting the exact same look.

    1. GruntledDave +22

      I sport tank top + rugby shorts when working out. My teenage daughter is continually horrified.

  3. aravisthequeen +58

    Oh my god. At our new house the backyard is a horrid wasteland of weeds, and my father-in-law has already booked his time to come for a week next summer and totally overhaul the entire thing. Even hearing about the weeds and stuff growing out of control like, hurts him. He keeps polling my husband to ask “Do you have a pitchfork?” or “Do you have a saw?” or whatever.

    Also when my parents visited last week, they are in the process of clearing out their house and dumped a ton of yard crap on us so we DO have those things. We have four saws now. Why. We have three levels. DADS COLLIDE.

    3. EPWordsnatcher +12

      You have four saws now but when you actually need a saw you will have no saws.

      These are the Laws of Tools.

      1. KelseyHigham +3

        You need stackable toolboxes labeled with sharpies on duct tape.

        Look in the one marked “Woodworking”.

  4. corvinafish +62

    The follow-up article to “Which Free Hat With a Logo On It Works Best For Your Look” is definitely “Spring For A Tilley Hat, You Won’t Regret It”

      1. GlowCloud +40

        My dad and someone else (who I can only presume was another dad) lost theirs on some tourist tour in the Mayan Riviera and the other guy went way out of bounds to retrieve them because “that’s a good hat!”

      2. EPWordsnatcher +2

        My mom has a Tilley and LOVES. IT. I was skeptical but then I borrowed it when I had to go to the desert for a week and a half and now I love it too.

    2. mkpatter +13

      MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY. The Tilley hat was also my Dad’s signature look. Like, I remember not being able to find him once when we were on vacation because he’d lost it.

    4. kttbe +19

      accessorized with suncreen that he doesn’t rub in?

      it takes two extra seconds, dad, jeeze. DADS.

      1. GreenGrasses +9

        HOLY SHIT I THOUGHT THE NOT-RUBBING-IN WAS JUST MY DAD. Why do they do that?? It’s not working better if it’s opaque, Dad!!

        1. kttbe +3

          YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

          maybe because they are so busy doing DAD THINGS that they just don’t have the time?

  5. ksek +57

    Trick-or-Treating the week BEFORE Halloween? At 3pm?! Trick-or-Treating is meant to be ON Halloween! After DARK!

    (Disclaimer: this is my own rant for my own town, and I am not a dad. IT IS REALLY JUST THAT RIDICULOUS)

    1. tragicallyludicrous +20

      whaaaat that is absurd

      (my housemates, who have only seen Halloween in movies or in expat-party-form, found it really fascinating that I’d actually been Trick-or-Treating and that people didn’t just make it up to make movies look better.)

    2. thebellewitch +32

      I’m ready to go full DAD here, too. Do kids even trick-or-treat at people’s houses anymore?? It’s like all malls and churches, for “safety”!

      1. waitressinlove +13

        Yeah, but this is great because then I eat all the candy I bought to pass out. Your loss, kiddies.

    3. ballisticjaguar +18

      In the town I grew up in, there was (still is) a bylaw wherein kids are ONLY allowed to trick-or-treat between the hours of 6-8 pm on October 31. The town is also home to a paper mill with a siren for if there is ever some sort of disaster at said mill (like a chemical leak), and they use that siren to signal beginning and ending of trick-or-treating.

      Being that this is what I have done since I was little, when I went to university and discovered that this was not how most cities/towns did Halloween, I was horrified. Trick-or-treating just..whenever? whenever you want on the day? Anarchy! I am still horrified actually.

    4. blushingflower +3

      I get that people don’t want their kids wandering the streets late in the evening, but the whole thing about taking them trick-or-treating before sundown bums me out. I don’t get home before dark this time of year, and the only good thing about Halloween (as far as I am concerned) is handing out candy to small children. But I can’t because they’re done before I even get home (and also if they go on a weekday and it is before sundown, I imagine a LOT of people are not home, so they are missing out!)

    5. Gryph +3

      In my town they moved trick or treat this year from Friday which is ACTUAL Halloween to Saturday in order to better accommodate high school football. I am OUTRAGED.

  6. littlehuntingcreek +18

    Dad Fashion:
    the vest with 57 pockets, old jeans (plenty of wear left!) and a fanny pack, accessorized with a Baseball Cap (one of many gifts from grandchildren), dark socks

    1. nonasuch +6

      oh god, every family vacation we ever took I would tease my dad mercilessly for his multi-pocketed khaki vest. He only ever wore it on vacation; I don’t think he ever used more than 1/3 of the pockets; and in retrospect I’m pretty sure it was a deliberate attempt to mortify my sisters and me.

  7. thecoppertop +45

    My dad has an obsession with our backyard (glad to know this is a well documented Dad Trait!!) and an affinity for lawn ornaments, each worse than the last. A couple Father’s Days ago we had a contest of who could buy him the tackiest lawn ornament – I won with a stone angel playing the saxophone.

      1. thecoppertop +13

        Literally just bought this for my dad for Christmas, Jaya you are the gift that keeps giving.

          2. Absotively +15

            I enjoy that these are all categorized under “Curated Collections,” suggesting that someone has put a lot of effort into thoughtfully deciding which dorky animal sculptures will best appeal to the discerning tastes of SkyMall customers.

      3. aqueousmedium +9

        Oh god, that’s perfect. My dad has an abiding passion for doofy statues while simultaneously fighting pitched battles with the squirrels that raid the bird feeders.

        “Dads: Three Months Is Absolutely Not Too Much Time To Spend Teaching Stellar Jays How To Catch Peanuts Out Of Mid-Air, Especially If It Makes The Squirrels Jealous”

  8. ramina +21

    Upon retirement, Dad decided to start handing out “nickel bars” for our Halloween candy. HELL YEAH DAD

  9. osutein +170

    Literally this morning I was telling my wife and infant son how much I love fleece. Verily I have emerged from the chrysalis of new parenthood and am how a full grown, beautiful Dad.

      1. osutein +43

        My life goal is to become The Toast’s Dad-in-Residence, though I have a long way to go before I will be worthy and the competition is stiff. Still, a dad must dream.

    2. mbculver +16

      Along with his extensive wardrobe of fleece vests (at least two of them bright yellow with company logos on them), my dad had approx. 80 jillion plaid overshirts in various thicknesses. You may want to look into overshirts as you become dad-in-residence.

      1. osutein +23

        I have four plaid overshirts, but you’re right that I should probably increase my stock. Also, corduroy pants.

        1. thecaitd +14

          Please tell me you got some loafers to go with those cords, cause otherwise don’t even try.

        2. mbculver +4

          Cords and loafers are definitely a must. I inherited 2 of my dad’s overshirts – one is a nice light Black Watch plaid, the other is a huge quilted black/white THING that makes me look like a giant hayseed. It’s the best.

        3. dakimel +12

          At least half have fraying cuffs and/or random paint stains, right? And you won’t let anyone throw them out because “those are my work shirts”?

      2. letteradicorsa +5

        My dad has passed, but I kept two of his plaid overshirts and wear them around the house.

  10. turanga_leela +17

    I am hoping there is a part of that hat article that helps dads match their hats to everyone else in the family. I know my dad will not let us go out of the house without a hat and will always lend us one of his.

  11. sausagedog +98

    Boyfriend’s dad (who is perhaps the daddest dad I’ve ever seen to dad) refers to all of his many fleece garments as “fuzzjobs.” Perhaps you could borrow the phrase.

    1. elsajeni +9

      When my cousin was a toddler he referred to Good’n’Plentys as “[My dad’s name] candy.”

  13. ksek +5

    I live in a college town that’s know for ludicrous Halloween parties all over town (or so I’m told — we just moved here over the summer), so I get that they’re trying to avoid overlap between kids being out and college folks being out. But man, just have it at like 6 a few days before the real date. 3PM on a Sunday seems a little overboard.

    1. friendofdaja +3

      Located in Ohio? Because if so, I live there too, and it used to drive me nuts as a twelve year old.

      1. ksek +2

        Yep! Kent. (I’m not sure if it’s the MOST known for crazy Halloween shenanigans, though. I hadn’t really heard about it before this year when I moved here.)

    2. friendofdaja +1

      Haha, I’m down at OU, and if Kent’s party is big enough to stop nighttime trick or treating, you better believe the Block Party makes parents nervous for weeks before hand.

  14. Goomaly +94

    “How many times do you threaten to TURN THIS CAR AROUND before you do? Our expert panel discussion”

    1. hussified +14

      Related! “How to Pull Over to the Side of the Road and Threaten to Make Them Walk Home, So Help Me: A Step-By-Step Guide.”

  15. lyetteann +24

    `My dad ran the DPW in our hometown, so when he saw a screwy streetlight, he fixed it. (Or, more accurately, he called one of his employees to fix it. Point being: he didn’t stand for that sort of malfunctioning nonsense in his town!)

    1. ramina +19

      My dad was the head of traffic safety, so if there was a traffic light on the fritz, he’d get that sorted out ASAP and I loved it. Sometimes he’d let me ride with him in the truck to go fix them and it was my favorite thing.

      1. lyetteann +12

        The truck! We called my dad’s truck “the town truck” and it was bright blue and had a snow plow on the front. It was a huge treat for us to get to ride in it too!

        1. ramina +8

          YES!!! Ours was dark blue with a big county seal on the side, but amber lights on the top. That was SO COOL.

    2. ArsenioB_Ham +45

      Last weekend Mr. B_Ham purchased hedge trimmers so he could trim a bush that was obscuring a stop sign at the intersection down the street. He is at LEAST 5 years from being a dad. Should I be worried? Comforted?

      2. lyetteann +15

        He’s already in training, that’s great! He will have reached Peak Dad by the time you actually obtain a child.

  16. leider_hosen +35

    My dad always wears the same raggedy cotton sweatshirts, which, SHOCKINGLY, are not that warm anymore. He used to have one that was made in 1999, with an odometer moving from 1999 to 2000 and some dumb slogan about the millennium or whatever. He wore it practically to rags until my mom put her foot down. Anyway, I badgered my dad into getting a warm layer that was NOT COTTON and he can’t stop raving about how much warmer it is and how great it is, but couldn’t possibly keep going. “Dad, why don’t you get another fleece? You’ll be so warm!” “No this one’s good.” YOU CAN SPRING FOR ANOTHER ONE, DAD.

    1. jhsaxena +21

      My dad wore a no-hood Penn State sweatshirt until he was patching the holes with duct tape.

    2. moxycrimefighter +20

      My dad LOVES cotton sweaters, like old school early ’90s cotton sweaters, that he inexplicably pairs with LL Bean short-shorts and mid-calf athletic socks and work boots, my Lord I can’t go on TOO MUCH DAD.

      But anyway, he has a mustard yellow cotton sweater that, in between all the holes, has just about every type of dad stain possible: grass, oil, coffee, etc. My mom threw it out several times and he kept retrieving it, so she gave up and when he’s not wearing it, it is banished to…somewhere. I don’t think its location is known to anyone but my dad, for the sake of their marriage.

    3. sarallelogram +6

      Oh man, it’s the best when they won’t buy it themselves, though – Christmas is easy for the rest of your life!

  17. logicbutton +45

    What do dads win if they embrace the ongoing narrative created by Dad Magazine’s single-phrase exclamation point headlines?

    Tinkering!
    National Parks!
    Grisham!
    Bulk Shopping!
    FLEECE!

  18. PonyAlong +19

    My Dad loved his backyard but not the minutiae of it; that was Mumsie’s realm. What he relished was felling the large trees that stood in his way of a BIGGER backyard and, let’s face it, handling the chainsaw. If he was alive today, I’m 100% sure he would be camped out here at every opportunity going “chainsaw happy” up the bank behind my house.

    Dammit, Dad; I miss you still.

  19. renmunch +41

    My dad scoffs at your FLEECE! headline. He has lived in Minnesota for his entire life and has NEVER worn a fleece. He still wears shorts when it’s 30 degrees out and doesn’t know why everyone else complains about the cold.

  20. gullwing +77

    The other day day my dad offered to pick me up from work early if my period cramps were too bad.

    For the record, I am 24.

    #DADS #peakdad

    1. winterbymorning +27

      I don’t think my dad even knows I get a period. Like I’m sure he’s aware of the existence and necessity of menstrual cycles but I don’t think he’s ever contemplated their inevitable manifestation in his own daughter.

      1. angryporcupine +30

        My dad calls menstrual products “thingies”. Like, “You left your thingies out in the bathroom, put them away”.

      2. OliviaPJones +15

        When I got my first period, my mother cheerily shared the news with my Dad (#MOMS) and he turned a little green. It’s better for him to pretend that nothing goes on with us below the waist. Still not sure how he dealt with my sister giving birth (well, basically going and getting coffee for the whole process and coming back when the baby was safely extricated).

        1. winterbymorning +23

          When I got my first period, I told a friend, who told her mom, who called to congratulate me. It was mortifying.

    2. hussified +9

      I got away with three straight days of sick my junior year because I convinced my dad I had horrible cramps. Since I was the oldest, he was terrified. (He’s since become comparatively nonplussed about it all.)

  21. Frumiosa +46

    That is ENTIRELY too much decolletage for a dad. Come on now this is a family publication.

  22. Rosie_M_Banks +48

    Dad Magazine, always so timely!

    DAD NEWS: My dad texted me last week to report that he finally finished the book that I gave him last Christmas (this one, on our friends Roosevelt and Taft).

    REAL DAD(TM) REVIEWS: “By the end of the book I developed a fairly strong distaste for TR. Egomaniac.”

  23. cleo +23

    Fleece! My dad was an early adapter of fleece – I remember him telling me about this amazing new fabric called polar fleece made from recycled Coke bottles. He’s been wearing it ever since.

    And I feel like this is the right place to mention that my dad has socks that are at least 20 years old. He has a system for making them last – he’s happy to explain it to anyone foolish enough to express interest.

  24. winterbymorning +44

    My dad has a wide variety of woolly hats which he wears after bathing in order to prevent his head from getting cold, because we all know that if your head is exposed to a draft you will die. He always thoroughly dries his hair, of course, but why take unnecessary risks? Up to when I was about 15 my grandparents would spend winters with us, and it was a source of endless delight to see my dad and my grandfather sitting on the couch silently watching TV together, both in pyjamas, bathrobes and fuzzy hats. (Except these were my grandparents on my mom’s side, so the hats weren’t even an inherited trait, it’s just an Eastern European Dad thing.)

    He also has a Che Guevara hat which for some unfathomable reason my mother allows him to wear in public.

  25. meetapossum +74

    If my dad is left alone in the house during Halloween, he will turn off the porch light and eat all the candy himself.

  26. leider_hosen +14

    Ahhh, so dad! My dad really likes working (in the yard, in the garden, painting, etc.) in hiking pants and shirts from REI, but he only likes the light tan color, so most of the time he’s puttering around in a stained, matching ensemble that looks like a very wrinkly one-piece coverall thing. Except it’s nice hiking pants and shirts. Dad?!?!

    ETA: intensedebate, what are you doing?? This is meant to be a reply to moxycrimefighter, stop moving it around.

  27. Thunder_Chicken +37

    Leaf Blower or the Good Ol’ Fashioned Rake: Take our lawncare style quiz!

    Cream of Who-The-Hell-Knows Casserole: recipes to impress and amaze your visiting daughter!

    37 Ways to Wear Buffalo Plaid and Vests

    How to Talk to Your Children About the Importance of a Front Porch Light

    1. gripyfish +10

      Rake, obviously. Leaf blowers mean you can’t bag up all of the leaves and put them in the compost pile, and what would we do without a compost pile?

    2. tenyaluna +16

      Follow-up! Top 5 Ways to Guilt Your Adult Children About Leaving the Front Porch Light On Do You Want Me To Retire in Poverty?

  28. houblonchouffe +5

    My dad spent a truly spectacular amount of time with a chainsaw in our backyard last summer clearing down brush piles and stacking firewood. I love that man.

    1. Unreadaethel +2

      When I was visiting last Christmas, dad got out the maul, and he and I split some firewood, then I built a fire with the firestarters I’d made them. Daddy was SO PROUD.

  29. LacaunaKale +7

    And why are there kids trick or treating here anyways? This is *supposed* to be an age restricted community!

  30. gripyfish +43

    Dads and backyards, oh man. I understand spending your summers off doing yardwork is the price you pay for being in a family (or at least in my family), but engaging your two daughters in your Ahab-like quest to vanquish the backyard sinkhole should not fall under that category.

    Three truckloads of dirt we hauled, my friends. Three truckloads of dirt for the promise of $50 each to spend on our family vacation. To Canada. Which meant we got $50 Canadian, ‘because that’s only fair, girls, be reasonable.’

  31. Fl0ssieraptor +46

    I realised not long ago that without warning I’ve turned into a #dad myself.

    Exhibit the first: I went on holiday with my dude, insisted on leaving before the sun came up and went and SAT IN THE CAR, drumming my fingers against the steering wheel to register my disapproval at how long it was taking him to get ready.

    Exhibit the second: I went on a drunken night out in a different city with my derby team this weekend, and tried to interest everyone in the taxi in the relative inexpensiveness of the petrol.

    I’ma need a fleece.

    1. OliviaPJones +4

      Welcome! Here is a gift bag of Dad-approved candies and some index cards full of made-up words that you explain obviously to your loved ones/strangers. See “pix,” below.

  32. fleurdelivre87 +8

    I’m very sorry, Chelsea Mae, but all I see when I look at that cleavage-bearing Dad is Kody Brown of polygamist TLC fame.

  33. J... +12

    Oh man, fleece and logo hats make up the bulk of my dad’s wardrobe. That, and pants and shirts from Costco.

    My dad also sent me the dad-est email this weekend. Apparently he rewired the lighting in his garage, so he sent me a several-paragraph long email about how he did it and included 4 or 5 photos.

  34. MayKatieMae +3

    Man oh man! Necco wafers (delicious to all dads, apparently), black jelly beans, and Spice Drops (??)

    1. wallpaperori +3

      My dad once tried to take me on a tour of the Necco factory. Apparently they don’t do them anymore, and I’m still disappointed.

    2. blunderbusst +4

      Dad helped me practice for my first communion with Necco wafers! They are, without a doubt, Dad Candy.

  35. Atalanta_Is +43

    My dad was not a hat person, and then I went to college and he got a hat from my college, and my sister is going to college and he has a hat from her college, and now he switches between them every single day.

    1. OliviaPJones +4

      My dad is like that except with t-shirts. Free event t-shirt? SCORE.

      I MEAN. IT’S FREE.

    2. lilsebastian01 +7

      My dad has a sweatshirt from my college (two, actually, one for “around the house” and a nicer newer one for outside) that he wears over a t-shirt from my sister’s college. Pretty delightful, especially because hers says “[Women’s College] Women Rule, Baby!”

    3. ScarletLIbrarian +1

      Mine has switched to full-brim hats to protect his hearing aids, but still requires a hat from every college my brother and I have ever attended (we both did college in high school and then grad school. He has a lot of hats.). Also a company logo hat for each gun, which was oddly required for me despite not wearing a ball cap since the family Disney trip in kindergarten where we all wore blaze orange ones to mark us as a unit, because DADS.

  36. thecaitd +57

    On Sunday my dad asked me to ‘pix’ him a picture of my new hair color so he could have the photo on his phone. I asked him what ‘pix’ meant, and he very patiently explained to me that that’s the word you use when you text someone a picture. I mean. Obviously.

  37. Frumiosa +32

    Last night, my husband and sons (ages four and one, respectively), all sat entranced and unmoving, glued to yet another episode of This Old House. Dads keep getting younger and younger.

    1. ramina +7

      This Old House was definitely a family thing at our house as well. A few years ago, my sister drew a picture of “This Old Haunted House” with “ParaNorm Abram and Boo Vila” and apparently the TOH tumblr liked it. #peakdadbutnotreally

    2. Unreadaethel +4

      My dad never took to This Old House, mostly because he always watched The Woodwright’s Shop, and felt that power tools were cheating.

  38. rmless +20

    My dad thinks Smarties (the chocolate kind) are so much worldlier and more special than M+Ms and will bring them back for me from pretty much anywhere he goes and hand them over with great ceremony as if he can’t believe he has found this treat AGAIN!!

  39. OliviaPJones +9

    My dad either loves those chocolates with a cherry and cherry go inside, or we think that he loves them and have been subjecting him to them for the past 25+ years.

    1. winterbymorning +18

      If he doesn’t like them and he’s been eating them without complaint for all this time because he knows it would make you happy to think you were making HIM happy, he has truly reached #peakdad.

  40. Elizabeth +11

    We just counted and my father-in-law has 17 fleece jackets, all purchased — of course — from Costco, along with an impressive array of Costco dad jeans — cut very loose and baggy in silhouette. And of course he wears those with white socks that he also gets in a six-pack each time he goes to Costco. Oh Costco. What would dads do without you?

  41. HotDoom +14

    I read a few headlines of Dad magazine to my partner every month and found that the free-logo hat really hit home, as he is a t-shirt aficionado with a bunch of free tshirt that he wears in regular rotation. In remarking that that line especially cracked me up, considering his affinity for free things and shirts, he went very thoughtful and listed off his favorite free t-shirts. For about 5 minutes, he kept bringing up another tshirt he really liked after a good long pause. Bless his un-Dadded heart.

  42. blunderbusst +15

    Took my dad on a steam train ride last weekend for his birthday. The train goes to history Virginia City, where dad promptly detrained, ate a tri-tip sandwich, and then bought a QUARTER-POUND of turtle fudge from which we would sneak huge bites while I was looking elsewhere.

    Then he wanted to get back on the train 45 minutes early because he “didn’t want to sit on this bench anymore.”

    2. The_Backson +3

      My dad’s birthday was last weekend and when I asked him what he wanted for his birthday he said “a tie”. I laughed. He wasn’t kidding, he really wanted a tie. Dad Birthdays!

  44. Echolocation +11

    My dad once told me that he didn’t like to wear belts, so he used a twist-tie to just hold together two belt loops if his pants were too big. I did this at work for an entire summer when I lost 15 pounds due to stress, and I can tell you it is an effective method, but at what cost?