{"id":149,"date":"2015-08-28T16:16:18","date_gmt":"2015-08-28T16:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/?p=149"},"modified":"2015-08-29T17:39:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-29T17:39:24","slug":"dispatch-from-mayefield-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/?p=149","title":{"rendered":"Dispatch from Mayefield (6)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>(Have you hugged your Dad this week?)<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i>\u00a0<\/i><i>As a reporter for the Mayefield Messenger, Thomas Carroll captured the soul of his hometown by writing about \u201creal people,\u201d not just those considered newsworthy.\u00a0 His feature stories were well regarded and occasionally came to the attention of the metropolitan daily, the Beacon Light, which published Thomas\u2019 stories under the heading \u201cDispatch from Mayefield.\u201d\u00a0 The following is one of these Dispatches, published in 1977.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><strong>Have you hugged your Dad this week?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Thomas Carroll<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0Mayefield Messenger<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes when the joy of sport turns to the pain of injury or the proverbial agony of defeat, there is no substitute for the comforting words or strong shoulders of a Dad \u2013even somebody else\u2019s\u2014to sooth things over.\u00a0 They have been through it.\u00a0 They know the pain and disappointment of not succeeding even when you\u2019ve tried your hardest.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes it just takes a pat on the head or backside, or maybe a shoulder on which to rest your troubles.\u00a0 When the hurt is physical, it takes more than words, and \u201cDad\u201d becomes the experienced trainer.<\/p>\n<p>Fathers in youth athletics are often criticized for \u201cruining the games for the kids,\u201d for being loud, argumentative, and demanding.\u00a0 Sometimes they are, but more often, they represent the kind of adult symbol kids need:\u00a0 hard working, understanding, loving.\u00a0 They support and encourage.<\/p>\n<p>With Father\u2019s Day coming up Sunday, we salute the Dads of the Mayefield Boys and Girls Club and other youth organizations.\u00a0 Without them, none of the games would be possible.<\/p>\n<p>Kids, have you hugged your Dad this week?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(Robert J. Marton)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Have you hugged your Dad this week?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.robertmarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}