Parenting and My Dad

I loved my dad very much.  I didn’t know it until I had children of my own. Perhaps his determined, focused parenting overshadowed, in my mind, the love between father and daughter that motivated his actions.

Still, I can’t remember ever holding my father’s hand.

I can’t remember my dad hugging me; me hugging him.

But, there was no absent black father in my home.  And, as the family grew, numbering eight children, his parenting interest in one child, was no more or less than for any other.  Remembering and treasuring my diligent father, compelled me to write a book – document and celebrate what my dads’ life meant to mine

I remember daddy going to work day after day very early in the morning and coming home, most days well after dark, tired, white bib overalls dusty and grimy,

I remember times laughing and playing together along with my brothers and sisters.

Old photos, from when I was just months old, show his devotion to family.

I remember his involvement in what I was taught, my personal development, his interest in how I conducted myself from as early as the age of four.

Throughout my childhood and youth, he had plans for my future, requiring certain behaviors and standards from me. 

Nothing was more important to John W. Woods, Jr. than his children, and their education, their future.

His other passion, from before he married my mother, was the game of baseball.  

His part ownership of a baseball team, The Zanesville Black Stars, didn’t survive the financial challenges of providing for a growing family.   He gave up the team, putting family first.

My life wouldn’t be what it is if not for the father I had.   Thus Black Star Girl (www.blackstargirl.com) is my legacy, a tribute to him, for his grandchildren he never knew.  It also represents for the many black fathers whose diligence gave our nation proficient black leadership in business and the professions when hurdles were high and encouragement low from many sectors of society.   My dad was not unique.  We just don’t hear enough about that Great Society of black men that he represents in the pages of the memoir, my book, Black Star Girl.