Happy Father's Day (June 17, 2018)

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator



Many countries celebrate Father's Day today, and we know a lot of Wing Commander fans have recently become dads out there. My little one just turned 16 months old, and I'm happy to that see she grabs a controller and starts pushing buttons whenever she gets a chance.


The CIC is more of a news site than a blog, but it's also a community hub more than anything, and it feels right to share this personal story with the community. This Father's Day is a tough one for me because my Uncle Jim passed away yesterday.


The two of us used to play NES and Super Nintendo games frequently in the '80s and '90s. The Mario games were big, plus Zelda obviously, puzzle games like Tetris and Doctor Mario and Wing Commander on the SNES, of course. We learned together how to put together PC hardware and how DOS worked. Whenever one of us messed up a sound card jumper setting or couldn't get the drivers right for a game to run, we would call each other and work it out. I very fondly remember how eager we were to install Windows 95 when it arrived on a giant stack of floppy disks. He was very enthusiastic about new technology and helped put me on a path towards many of the cool techie things I'm engrossed in today. Plus, he'd recommend everything from books he thought I'd like to what the best shaving gear was. After my grandfather passed away when I was little, he was more of a father figure than anyone but my mom.







He had quite a story. As an underage teenager, he enlisted in the navy and served in the Pacific during World War 2. While going to school at the University of Washington, he worked 100-hour weeks for the gas company bringing heat to Seattle during the cataclysmic winter storms of 1950. And prior to retirement, he was an executive at Boeing, where I'm now a manager myself. His tales about how part of the city was on AC current and part on DC current when he was growing up were crazy, and the magnitude of technological change he witnessed in his lifetime is hard to imagine. Yet he was always so excited about what was coming next. He'd say that he wished he could come back in a hundred years and see all the amazing stuff we have then. A couple years ago at about age 90 I helped him set up his first smartphone - I hope I'm on top of the latest gadgets in the year 2070. Going back to the mid '90s, he gave me the computer that I used to get established in the online Wing Commander community, which I used to make my first Wing Commander website and eventually code the first pages here at the CIC. Had he not passed me down that machine, I wouldn't have been able to play Prophecy and Secret Ops when they were new with all of you. Who's to say if I would have been able to be engaged enough to help found the CIC, report news daily for the past 20 years, and make all of the lifelong friendships that I have. Life could have been very different.


So for helping make me the person I am today, so that I could be here helping keep the Wing Commander community going strong and being friends with all of you, Happy Father's Day Uncle Jim. I'll miss you very much.

--
Original update published on June 17, 2018
 
Travelled from Texas to France to be with the family for my Mom’s birthday and Fathers’ Day. My granddad is here too. Went through the War, witnessed the landings in Algeria, lived through the clusterfuck of the Algerian War, managed a small hotel with his wife and their two kids, worked as an architect and an industrial drawer. Now? He makes plans on AutoCad and Inventor, is a fan of Japanese animation and my dad gave him for Fathers’ Day the complete DVD set for Black Lagoon. :)
 
My condolences for your loss, ChrisReid.
Having been a dad for the past 9 years has been life changing for me... much more since I was divorced and separated from one of my children. While I am grateful to being a father for my 8-year-old gifted son, I wish I could spend more time with my 5-year-old daughter without sacrificing my work and sanity.
Oh well... Happy Father's Day to you all, Wing Commanders!
 
I'm sorry for your loss Chris but it seems that your uncle Jim lived a good life.

Father's day was celebrated in Germany a few weeks ago and it's not a big deal (mostly an excuse for drinking) and yet, when my son gave me his gift they made in kindergarten I once again realized how awesome it is to be a father. I really hope I never let my children down.

Happy (belated) Father's Day to all fathers!
 
I can understand Chris myself,
At least as I have grasped the how "life works" lesson, we are always seeking for some kind of guidance in our life, especially when we were kids. Role models are imperative for our well being.
May uncle Jim's actions guide you to become a good and better father for your kid Chris.
I had my role model in life and I lost him a couple of years ago, some of you might have noticed by a short story that I wrote about it.
Until today, when things go wrong, he is still there to help me out.
 
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