When you were a little kid, Father’s Day shopping wasn’t very hard. You would make your dad a homemade card or something and your mom would go out and get him a new necktie or bottle of aftershave lotion or something along those lines.
When you get to be an adult, you might get your dad something useful, such as a leaf blower. (Remember to pick out one that you like and might want to borrow or possibly have re-gifted to you a year or two later…LOL.)
However, when your dad gets up into his senior years – if you are fortunate enough to still have him around – getting him presents can get a bit tougher. For instance, neither my dad nor my father-in-law, for that matter, really have anything they need materialistically speaking.
They are retired so they don’t need clothes to wear to work. They don’t really have a lot of hobbies.
Present buying for older adults can be somewhat of a dilemma.
A few years back, I started getting my dad the occasional experience as a present. It started one year when my wonderful wife Cecelia found a Group On for two tickets to the Senior PGA Championship when it was held at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville.
Dad and I made a day out of it stopping to get breakfast on the way and supper on the way back. It was a fun trip.
Last year for Father’s Day or for his July 4 birthday (I forget which), I got us tickets to go see a very good Eagles tribute band at Renfro Valley in Mount Vernon. The Eagles are a little more my thing than his, but we both enjoy their music and had a really good time once we could wrangle a couple of actual seats. (Another story for another day…LOL.)
For Father’s Day this year, I got us two tickets to go see a Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) tribute band called Revisiting Creedence when they play at the Lexington Opera House on Oct. 26.
Cecelia and I saw this band play last year when we were in Bowling Green, and they put on a good show. The band features two or three musicians, who used to tour with Creedence back in the day. They mix in old stories about the band between their own rendition of the songs. It is a good concert particularly if you are a CCR fan. There are still a few tickets left if anyone is interested.
Remember that experiences can make for good presents, especially for those who are difficult to shop for as they already have most of the material things that they need. I mean good experiences that they would enjoy are certainly better than scented hand sanitizer as a present for instance. Not that anybody I know has ever bought that as a present for a relative. (Sarcasm intended…LOL.)
While this advice is too late to help anyone with Father’s Day shopping this year, let me point out that Christmas is only about seven months away leaving plenty of time to come up with some good experiences for one or both of your parents, if you are fortunate enough to still have them around.
Also, if you are an older adult and you don’t want socks again as a Christmas present this year, then you might want to cut this column out and send it to some relatives as a hint or send a link to this column on our website to some relatives. Just a thought I wanted to throw out there.
Let me close this column by wishing my great dad, Mike White, a happy Father’s Day.
