Sunday is Father's Day, a time to acknowledge the pater familias (the male head of the household, as the Romans referred to him), pop, dad -- he has many names, many jobs and is truly never appreciated until he is gone.

Even though I have been a father for nearly half of my life, when I consider Father's Day, my thoughts invariably go to my own father, Arved Stangl, otherwise known as "The Chief," who passed away in 2001.

The chief was a hard working man and got his moniker from his constant assertion that he was in charge. With six children, doing anything was a struggle. Children often have the annoying habit of questioning authority figures and my father, like every other father, had a saying to quash these potential uprisings. He'd say "we have too many chiefs and not enough Indians. I'M the chief, and YOU are the Indians. What I say goes."

The chief had spoken. End of discussion. Time to buckle down and get the job done.

The chief had many catch phrases that he would apply to problems or questions. Many were veritable verbal Swiss army knives, being able to be utilized in many different situations, much like the common butter knife he often used that did extra service as a screwdriver, putty knife and pry bar. I'm sure your father had similar phrases.

Here are a few of the chief's nuggets of wisdom:

After a long day at the garage: "I like people less than I do squirrels...and I HATE the damn squirrels!" The chief disliked working with the public, and had fought an ongoing war against squirrels invading the attic of our home.

On work and play: "If you're not making money, you're spending money."

Answer for any request for material possessions he did not want to grant: "People in Hell want ice water, too."

"You need the right tools to do the job." This sage advice was often given while trying to pry swollen storm windows loose with a butter knife.

We learn, for better or worse, much about relationships from our parents. The chief was not a diplomatic man. Obtuse and blunt are the two adjectives that come to mind when I recall his dealings with my mother.

Some of his material came from her cooking. Although I was not yet born, family legend tells of the first time my mother made a pie from scratch, crust and all. The chief, after taking his first bite, says, "I see the redi-mix man was here today."

From there on out, frozen pie crusts were the rule at our house.

In the summer, when gasoline was 25 cents a gallon, we would often pile into the Rambler station wagon and go for a drive, just to cool off and have something to do. Many times when we would drive past the local Dairy Sweet, we would implore the chief to stop for ice cream. His response: "There's ice cream at home." After I became an adult, he confessed that he didn't have enough money to buy one cone, let alone four or five.

When we weren't paying attention to what he was trying to tell us, his favorite line, used by sister now, was "no one ever learned anything while they were talking."

When we were working on a project that required mechanical skills and we wanted to get it completed without the chief's help (the last thing he wanted to do after working at a garage all day was work with tools). Invariably, we needed his help. His response to our efforts was you guys are "clumsier than a cub bear with mittens on."

The mental picture is quite funny, but I wouldn't have wanted to have been the one that put the mittens on the bear.

I use some of these phrases on my children. I get about the same response I gave when I heard them originally. The circle of sarcasm is complete.

Happy Father's Day to all the 'chiefs' out there. Enjoy your day!

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.