1.4 How Daddy decided what he wanted to be
From 'When Daddy was a little boy' by Alexander Raskin
Another tale from a dad to his daughter, written in 1961. Read the introduction below.
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HOW DADDY DECIDED WHAT HE WANTED TO BE
When Daddy was little he was often asked: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Daddy always had an answer ready. But each time his answer was different.
At first, Daddy wanted to be a night watchman. He liked to think that while the whole town was asleep, the night watchman was up. And he liked to think that he could make noise when everyone was sleeping. He was quite certain he wanted to be a night watchman when he grew up.
But then the ice-cream man came along with his bright green cart. Why, he could push a cart, he could eat all the ice-cream he wanted to!
"I'll eat a stick of ice-cream for every one I sell!" Daddy thought. "And I'll treat little children to ice-cream free."
Little Daddy's parents were very surprised when they heard that their son wanted to be an ice-cream man. They thought that was very funny. But he thought it would be a very tasty way of being grown-up.
Then one day little Daddy saw a strange man at the railway station. The man kept playing with the cars and locomotives. But these were real cars and real locomotives! He'd jump on to the platforms and crawl under the cars, playing a strange and wonderful game.
"Who's that man?" Daddy asked.
"He's the shunter," he was told.
Now little Daddy knew what he wanted to be! Just think! He would shunt railway cars! What in the world could be more interesting? Nothing, obviously.
When Daddy said that he would be a shunter someone asked him: "But what about the ice-cream?"
This was a problem. Daddy had decided to become a shunter, but he did not want to give up the bright green ice-cream cart.
At last, he found a way out.
"I'll be a shunter and an ice-cream man!".
Everyone was very surprised.
But little Daddy explained it all quite clearly: "That's not hard at all. I'll sell ice-cream in the morning. After selling it for a while, I'll go to the station. There I'll shunt some cars and go back to sell some more ice-cream. Then I'll go back to the station and shunt the cars again, and then I'll sell some more ice-cream. It won't be hard, because I'll park my cart near the station and I won't have far to go to the trains."
Everyone laughed again.
Then little Daddy got angry and said: "If you're going to laugh at me, I'll be a night watchman, besides. After all, there's nothing to do at night."
It was all settled. But then Daddy wanted to be a pilot. Then he wanted to be an actor. But after Grandpa took him to a factory he decided to be a turner. Besides, he wanted to be a sailor. Or at least a shepherd and spend his days walking about with the cows, cracking his whip loudly.
Finally, he decided that he really wanted to be a dog. All that day he ran around on all fours, barking at strangers. He even tried to bite an elderly lady when she wanted to pat his head. Little Daddy learned how to bark very well, but he couldn't learn how to scratch behind his ear with his foot, though he tried very hard. He thought that if he went outside and sat next to Rover he'd learn more quickly. That's exactly what he did.
Just then an officer was walking down the street. He stopped and looked at Daddy. He watched him for a while and then he asked: "What are you doing?"
"I want to be a dog," little Daddy said.
Then the stranger said: "Don't you want to be a person?"
"I've been a person for a long time," Daddy said.
"What sort of a person are you, if you can't even be a dog? Is that what a person is like?"
"Well, what is he like?" Daddy asked.
"You think about that yourself," the officer said and away.
He wasn't laughing and didn't even smile. But little Daddy suddenly felt much ashamed of himself. And he began to think. He thought and thought and the more he thought, the more ashamed he was of himself. The officer did not explain anything to him, but he suddenly understood that he couldn't change his mind every day. And, what was most important, he realised that he was too small to know what he wanted to be.
The next time he was asked the same question he remembered the officer and said: "I want to be a person!"
No one laughed. And little Daddy understood that this was the best answer of all. He still thinks so. First of all, you have to be a good person. This is most important for a pilot and a shepherd and an ice-cream man. And after all, a human being does not really have to know how to scratch behind his ear with his foot.
THE END
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