By By Georgia E. Frye / staff writer
June 15, 2003
If you asked my mom about my dad and me, she would say we are just alike. She would probably even tell you her special nickname for us: "Big Randy and Little Randy."
She's right. We are just alike.
We think alike, we look alike, we love to cook, we are very meticulous and we love powdered doughnuts.
That may sound silly, but powdered doughnuts are a major symbol of my childhood. My favorite picture of my dad and me is one of us in the house I grew up in, eating powdered doughnuts.
It was a ritual.
This is my first Father's Day away from South Carolina and not being able to see my dad today is going to be very difficult.
It is, in a way, ironic because it was my dad who suggested I move to Meridian, but at the time, he and my mom lived here. They are now back in Spartanburg and I am here, working on a new life and hopefully a life-long career as a journalist.
New beginnings
I remember the morning my first article was published in The Meridian Star. It was a cold January day and my dad went out to buy a paper. At the gas station, he told the cashier and everyone at the pumps that I was his daughter and I was a writer.
That day was one of the few times I have seen him with tears in his eyes. He acted like I had won a Pulitzer. He told me again that day, something he has told me thousands of times, that he was proud of me and that he knew I could do anything I wanted.
Those words have been a major source of strength for me throughout my life, because he has never once doubted that I could do anything, even when I doubted myself.
He has always supported me and made my dreams his own.
The one word I would use to describe my father is "cool." He was, and is, the coolest and most handsome man I know.
Childhood memories
One of my favorite memories with my dad is hearing Pink Floyd for the first time. It was 1983 and my dad brought home The Final Cut. As we listened to it, I didn't understand the words, but I could feel the emotion.
I realized then that emotions are powerful and music and writing is a wonderful way to express one's feelings. Soon after that I started writing. I wrote mostly nonsense, I was only 7, but I knew what my purpose was, even if I didn't exactly realize it fully.
I realized I had a passion for writing.
My childhood wasn't always easy. Like most, we had hard times, but we always had something that not everyone had love and a strong, close family.
My dad has always been there for me. Even when I rebelled against him in my teenage years, he was patient and understanding. After all, we are just alike, so I think he understood.
I want to thank my dad Raymond Dillard Frye, Jr. for always being there for me and for encouraging me to follow my dreams. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be in Meridian, writing for a newspaper and having the opportunity to thank him in such a way.
Daddy, for all you have done for me, thank you.
Happy Father's Day.