A special saturday blog that has nothing to do with cold rooms or mysterious dimes.

My Dad is Meaner then Your Dad

How scary is my Dad's glare?

In the summer of 1983 when my Mom was running the private park , a group of European college kids bicycling across America stopped outside the gate. They very nicely asked if they could perhaps spend the night. It was a very hot day and they were tired. I went in the house and asked Dad what he thought. He didn't think it would be a problem , but wanted to meet them first.
Dad and I walked outside and over to where the bikers were. It was a very sunny day and Dad had his arm raised up a bit to shield his eyes from the glare. When we got to the group of young men Dad lowered his arm , and smiling looked right at them. The young man who was closest to my Dad moved away just a little bit. The others looked very nervous.
Not noticing this ,Dad told them it was ok to spend the night as long as they didn't make to much noise or bother the other campers.
One of the bikers nervously thanked Dad, but said they had decided to push on a little further. They turned the bikes around , and peddled away .
Dad was perplexed. Why didn't they stay? I looked at my Dad and started laughing.
"What's so funny?", he asked.
When Dad was talking to the young men he was facing into the bright mid day sun. To protect his eyes he was kinda squinting.
Which made it look like he was glaring at them.
What was even more frightening to these young men was that my Dad was also smiling his best fake ,"Glad to meet you ", smile. The result of the glare and the smile was very (however unintentionally) unnerving.
Dad was unconvinced."I scared them off?"
"Yeah. You glared at them."
"I didn't glare at them !" Dad sounded very insulted. Which meant he thought it was funny as hell.
"They thought you did."
Dad headed back towards the house. He stopped before he went in and looked at me with an almost confused expression." They ran away because they thought I was looking at them mean?" He shook his head. "Probably French."
With that he went back in the house.