I always remember my dad having this confidence about everything he did, from home maintenance to sports to driving. I don’t really know where he got it from, possibly from his time working at the Clark Air Force Base, his medical training, or just generally how his adopted mom Nana Olin raised him. He never seemed stressed or overwhelmed or short tempered.
Dad would drive the family all over the United States in this wood-paneled van filled to the brim with aunts, uncles and cousins. We’d cross multiple states to get to Yellowstone National Park or the Grand Canyon. I realize now what a crazy undertaking that must have been, well before Google Maps or Yelp. I would have been terrified to drive that many kids across the US like that! Perhaps my dad was too, but he never showed it.
Mom and dad even took us all the way to Germany to buy a Mercedes Benz silver sedan, which he then proceeded to drive all across Western Europe. I think we had a couple of guidebooks, but of course spoke none of the languages of the places we were visiting. I would have spent six months researching and planning this trip if it were me. He and mom seemed to handle it with ease.
Dad’s confidence was sometimes off. He decided he wanted to own a boat, since he loved fishing so much. As far as I knew, he had never driven a boat, hadn’t taken any courses on how to navigate in a body of water, and never driven around towing one. Still, he wanted a boat, so he bought one. Cori recalls us going to Bodega Bay on what looked like a beautiful day, casting off, and then later getting caught in the middle of the ocean in an impenetrable bank of fog, with no knowledge of how to get back to dock. Hours later we ran into a fisherman in his boat who helped us get back to shore. He sold the boat soon afterwards.
Dad’s confidence sometimes led him to go his own way and not really consult or listen to others. Still, when I think of how anxious I get about even going across town to a local festival and how much online research and consulting of others I do first, I wish I had a little of dad’s “can do” optimism.