Hi all - I need some help!
My dad is 80 on May 21st, and I'm stuck for pressie ideas. Even when he was younger he never was particularly materialistic, and now he's knocking on a bit there's nothing he particularly wants or needs.
I want to buy him a gift that shows I love him, but I haven't a clue what to get him. Price is not an issue - I don't mind how much or little the gift costs - if it conveys the right sentiment.
I thought of a simple gift like a framed photo of me and my sisters, or me and all my siblings, which would include my only brother who committed suicide two years ago, but a) I've done that a couple of times before for other birthdays so I'd be repeating myself, and b) my parent's home is like a shrine to my sister Jinty (their favourite), with half a dozen photos of her and none of me or my other siblings, so I'm not sure he'd appreciate a photo with all of us on it.
Then I thought of an ethical gift, like adopting a child in his name, or buying a goat or well-digging equipment for a poor african family etc., but to be totally honest, my dad isn't an especially charitable man, who doesn't donate to charities himself, so he's not likely to find that sort of gift particularly meaningful.
Then I thought of naming a star for him, but that just seemed like a present for an egotist, and my dad's not that either.
To help me, you'll need to know what sort of man my dad is. He's a loving father and grandfather, a retired very hardworking blue-collar worker, loyal Daily Mirror reader, conservative (with small c), lifelong Labour party supporter, teetotaler, ex-wartime soldier (I've heard the stories to death...), staunch union man, not into any sort of sport (so no golf, angling or football gift ideas are appropriate), he doesn't read, he's not much into music or film, and he's diabetic and ungreedy so food gifts are a no-no...
He's not especially adventurous so there's no point in buying him a ride in a hot air balloon or anything like that...
He's sentimental though (he loves the slushy Hallmark cards that make my mum want to hurl)...knowing this, I wrote a poem for his 70th birthday and had it framed, and he cried, then hung it on the lounge wall...but now it's been relegated to the spare room (where it STILL makes me cringe - it should have been relegated to the dustbin the day after his birthday! It's a DIRE poem...) and I'm not in a rush to repeat the same mistake and write another piece of crap which will be kept to remind me forever afterwards that I can't write poetry for toffee...
So...in a nutshell he's impossible to buy for!
The only idea I can come up with relates to the fact that about 5 years ago he started having computer lessons because he decided he wanted to write his memoirs so that me and my siblings would have something to remember him by after he's popped his clogs. He was hopeless at his lessons and couldn't grasp hardly how to switch the computer on, let along write a book on it, so eventually he lost interest, sold the computer, and that's the last we heard of the matter. But I did wonder whether he'd appreciate a mini-dictaphone or voice recorder for his birthday, so that he could make audio recordings of his memoirs.
It struck me that he'd probably get pleasure from recording him and my mum (they LOVE talking about the 'old days', and he has a phenomenal memory for detail), and as an added bonus me and my sisters would have a priceless gift when mum and dad eventually pass away.
But I'm not sure if this is a case of me thinking it would be a good idea for him, rather than him thinking that for himself. If he were that bothered about compiling a keepsake for me and my sisters, wouldn't he have done it already? And of course half his pleasure in telling stories of the old days is derived from the fact that he's telling them to a real and interactive audience - will he get the same pleasure from simply talking into a dictaphone, or will he feel silly and inhibited?And if so, would the dictafone just be shoved in a drawer, like all the other gadgets he's bought but never used over the years?
Oh, and Kim thinks the dictaphone idea is a stupid idea - he thinks dad would never use it...
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I'm DESPERATE! Does anyone have any suggestions? If anyone can come up with ANYTHING I'll be really grateful! His birthday is only 7 weeks away...
Janey