My Dad, the hero

I heard the "JCB Song" for the first time on the radio yesterday, and it made me think about my Dad. He worked in the construction industry when I was young, and he used to drive stuff like graders and diggers and JCBs. Huge, yellow, roaring monsters that somehow Dad was able to subdue and bend to his will.

One exceptionally cold winter when I was little, my entire village became snowed in, the roads impassable. That morning my Dad wrapped up warm, and set off walking to work through the drifts. At the time he was a trainer at a construction college about 4 miles away. School was closed, so I made snowmen and played with the neighbourhood kids.

A few hours later there was a roar from up the road. A bulldozer was forcing it's way through the drifts, clearing the way to the main trunk road. At the wheel, grinning for ear to ear, was my Dad.

My Dad was a hero. Not because he let loads of people get out of the village to the shops or to work or whatever. I was six, I didn't care about any of that.

As far as I was concerned my Dad was a hero because he piled the snow up in a huge drift around the back of our house, and all the kids in our street took great pleasure in sledding down it. It was an excellent snow slide that seemed to last for weeks, and my Dad made it.

So when I heard that song, about a young boy's simple pleasure at being with his Dad, it brought memories like that flooding back. Back to the days when my Dad was a scary-but-safe giant. A giant who wrestled with monsters, smelt of engine oil, was never scared, could do no wrong, and knew everything. Listening to the song gave me goosebumps, and a little lump in my throat.

I bet you want to hear it too now, don't you? It's here. The video's exceptionally good too. Christmas Number One!!