Mark Elswick aka “Padman” has overcome the obstacles of parenthood and lived to write about them in this fun collection of short stories based on his own experiences as a man dealing with women, especially his daughter. Whether it’s having to go to the store to buy those … um, feminine hygiene products for your daughter, worrying about the older man your daughter wants to date, or just accepting that she’s reached middle age and is becoming An elderly man, he will smile with familiarity at incidents, sympathizing with Elswick’s feelings and admiring his courage to move forward in the face of what often threatens his manhood or at least his masculine self-esteem.
Elswick is also not above teasing himself. While he may be in awe and stunned by the things women are doing around him, he ultimately laughs at his own reactions to events and the expectations women have of him. When you try to outwit women, for example by “multitasking” (watching the game while your daughter is changing her diaper), your efforts tend to backfire, ultimately, to your amusement and that of the reader.
Just to provide a taste of Elswick humor, here is a passage from the story “A Little Money?”:
“When I started to close the dryer door, I decided to do something I wish I had never done. I double-checked the dryer to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
“Sure enough, there was something, a shoelace. Why did he wash a shoelace? I rolled my eyes in typical disbelief. I reached in to pull it out, hoping that somehow it hadn’t wound up inside the machine. and something broken.. I just knew it had caused damage to my dryer. Fortunately, as I grabbed the black thread, it wasn’t wrapped in a mess and I pulled it out. Relieved and feeling my anger exhale, I picked up the …
At that point, I stopped exhaling and even stopped breathing. What I grasped in my right hand was what I had thought was a rope. Now, I quickly realized that it was not a rope at all. I thought it belonged to me With my daughter’s shoe at eye level, I felt like it was almost Daddy’s worst moment in my life as a father. I could have screamed when I realized this “rope” didn’t look alike in nothing I had originally thought of.
“That little piece of string made me feel as nauseating as when I found out what With Wings meant.
“That shoestring was … one of my fourteen-year-old daughter’s thongs.
“As I had learned in my adventure with Padman, there are certain things that men never want to run into in life. This was at the height of discovering your parents having sex.”
As if having to deal with a teenage daughter growing up wasn’t enough, Elswick has had to overcome some other very serious obstacles in her life. While most of “Padman” is made up of humorous stories, some pretty serious stories and essays are scattered about. The most dramatic story is that of Elswick himself, who survived a freak car accident that left him with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Doctors told Elswick’s parents that it was unlikely that he would live and that if he did, he would be a vegetable for the rest of his life. Against all odds, Elswick not only survived, but has lived a relatively normal life, although his traumatic brain injury continues to affect him.
Elswick doesn’t linger long or negatively on his tests, but he does want this book to increase awareness of TBI and appreciation for how precious life is. It provides a lot of laughs on these pages with a little education added for good measure. Elswick is currently working on a more extensive book on TBI to be published in 2012. In the meantime, partial proceeds from the sale of “Padman” are being donated to the TBI investigation.
