Honoring my dad for Father’s Day

Normally, I don’t write about a lot of mushy, family type stuff in this column, but this week I will make an exception given that Sunday is Father’s Day and say a few things about my dad, Mike White.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

My dad has always been a great role model. When I was growing up, he would usually be working two, if not three jobs.

His day job was teaching high school social studies at Lynn Camp High School. He also worked part-time after school and on weekends to help make ends meet. First it was at Belk’s in Corbin and later at Lowe’s Sporting Goods in Corbin.

In addition, my father was a coach, starting the baseball team at Lynn Camp High School in the 1970s, the academic team in the 1980s and the golf team in the 1990s.

My dad grew up an avid baseball fan, which is how he ended up coaching baseball in the 1970s. He was a golfer at a time when there weren’t any other teachers who golfed at Lynn Camp, which is how he ended up coaching the golf team.

The academic team is another story. He started it in the fall of 1985, which was my freshman year in high school. Although he has never said why he started it, it wasn’t too hard to figure out given that he had a nerdy, brainy son, who was far better at academics than sports. (Truth be told I was absolutely awful at sports as in played Optimist League basketball for two years and didn’t score a single point kind of bad…LOL.) Modesty aside, I was pretty good on the academic team, though.

In addition to his paying jobs, dad also was active in our church serving as a deacon, Sunday School director, Sunday School teacher, occasional song leader, member of the choir, occasional driver of the church van, etc.

In between all of these duties, he also found time to get his master’s degree and his rank one, and still make it occasionally to one of my baseball or basketball games, which I suspect made him cringe at least a few times…LOL.

Over the years as a journalist, I have gotten some angry phone calls from preachers upset that someone with their same name is listed in the paper as getting arrested and demanding that I put a correction in stating that it isn’t them because people are calling thinking that it is.

They usually aren’t any happier when they hang up after talking to me though. I always tell them that I can put a note in the paper saying the person that got arrested isn’t them, but that if their flock doesn’t already know that they wouldn’t do something like that, then they have far bigger problems than I can solve.

The same thing couldn’t be said for my dad.

Several years ago, there was a different Mike White, who was charged in connection with a theft case at a school. I never put a “not the same as” disclaimer on the story stating it wasn’t my dad. I didn’t need to. Everybody, who knows anything about my dad, knows he wouldn’t do anything like that.Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a father like that, but I am.

Thanks for being a great role model and a terrific father, dad. I love you.

Now to touch on another topic before I conclude this column.

It finally happened. I finally got COVID-19 despite being vaccinated and boosted.

I figured I had a sinus infection when I started feeling mildly bad Saturday afternoon and went to urgent care Sunday afternoon to get checked out only to find out that I had gotten the virus.

While it’s no fun, my symptoms aren’t terrible. It’s about like having a sinus infection and a cold or flu at the same time, but I should make it. I am working from home this week getting an assist from some of my cats, who I think are hoping to become the next viral sensation…LOL.