A nightly ritual on many occasions, when I was a child, were fond memories ending the day with my dad. Once our teeth were brushed I would race my brothers back into our family room and after family prayers would climb up on a tall bar/counter were we would normally color or do homework near our kitchen and wait for my dad to do the infamous night time ritual known as the hup-hup. It was luck of the draw who would go first, so if it wasn’t me I would stand on the bar patiently and wait my turn.
My dad would come close to the bar. I would climb on his shoulders and pat his bald head and then like a soldier he would begin to march toward the bedroom hallways and we both would say together, “Hup, hup,… hup-hup-hup…” the whole way as he begin to walk me toward my bed. But before I ever got to my bed, he would try to trick me by sometimes marching into a closet, out the front door, or even in the bathroom. I would always exclaim, “No, no, not here.” Along the path he would stop and I would lean down and turn out the lights.
Finally we would find my room and he would drop me on the bed with a bounce where we both would giggle. Often a story would be the final closure, depending how tired he was or if he wanted my brothers to get out of bed again. (Once in bed we were not to get out, except to go potty.) But he would always call to them to come listen and we would all cram together lying on my bed. He never read a book, he always told stories in the dark; the best stories ever. We scratched arms and snuggled close and it was the closing moment to our day.
The memory still remains clear as a bell in my mind, even the stories, but the warmth feels much warmer now that I am an adult and know how much energy that must have taken to do that special night time ritual from a daddy who worked long days but could not wait to spend a little moment with his children. That silly hup-hup lasted…
Only One Childhood 