Mike Danko

I had to write this down, a story about my 3.5 year old son that I love sharing.

My son and I went out to the local greasy spoon for dinner, his mom had to work on some side work and she needed some quiet. We sat at the counter (the “bar” to him), had a great old time, and then I asked him if he’d like to go get some Busytown books from the library across the street. It was an unimaginable way of making an awesome day better for him. The lights were out at the library so they gave us FLASHLIGHTS to find our way around. After many repetitions of “I see a book daddy!” we made our way out. There was still some time to kill, so I asked him if he’d like to go back to the greasy spoon and have a milkshake with me. He was speechless.

We got back to the counter and I had him ask the lady what flavor of milkshakes they had. Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry, Peanut Butter, Butterscotch, Cherry….

“I want THAT one!”

“Cherry?”

“No, the other one”

“Butterscotch?”

“Yeah, that one”

“Two small butterscotch milkshakes it is please”, I asked.

We sat for a while while they put the shakes together, lots of noises interesting for a kid coming from the kitchen. A few minutes later, the waitress brought out the thickest milkshakes I’d ever had. Jonathan and I spent the next 15 minutes sipping, then waiting, laughing, then stirring, sipping, waiting, and laughing again. He eventually finished the milkshake around the same time I did. He sat back on the swivel chair, put his hand on his belly and proudly exclaimed, “That was AWESOME Daddy”.

We paid our bill and made our way to the car. While I was holding his hand in the parking lot, I asked him what his favorite part of the whole day was.

“I liked being in the library with the flashlights”.

“Yeah, that was fun Jonathan, what was your second favorite part of today?”

“I liked drinking scotch at the bar with Daddy”

I had a very, very difficult time keeping a straight face.

“You mean butterscotch Jonathan?”

“Yeah, butterscotch, I like butterscotch.”

I put him in the car seat and drove home having had an awesome day, regardless of scotch at the bar.

A few things… I’m really behind on a lot of the things I like to do right now. Besides doing a lot of swing shifts, I decided to go cold turkey on a 2000mg a day caffeine habit. I’m going to bed now, wish me luck in staying wake tomorrow.