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Walking together forever

Father-Daughter Take a Walk Together Day: One daughter's story.

By JENNIFER STROBEL
The Free Lance-Star

Date published: 7/7/2002

Daughter recalls time with Dad

There's a black-and-white snapshot in a family album.

Me, squinting in the sun, 3-inch blonde pigtails sticking out, fresh-picked daisies in my hand.

And, on the other side of the camera, unseen in the photo, my father.

I was 5. He was 33.

I remember that moment, probably because of the photograph, so I will say that maybe that is how it started.

New to town, we were exploring our neighborhood on foot. I'd walked beside him down the sidewalk a couple of blocks from our Caroline Street home, skidded down a steep dirt path, traversed a field, poked through thick underbrush, and emerged at river's edge where water for the power plant pounded into the current.

It was just the right-sized adventure for the tiny girl I was.

It must have meant something to my father, too, because he thought to snap the picture.

From then on, we were walking buddies.

I can't count the number of times people have said, "I saw you and your dad walking down " fill in the blank--we've walked every street, path and alley in town. We've put in plenty of miles on country roads and mountain trails. We've blazed a few of our own.

It all came back to me this week, when I heard about National Father-Daughter Take a Walk Day, which is today.

There really is such a thing.

It's listed among 12,000 holidays in Chase's Calendar of Events, and I spoke with the woman who originated it, Janet M. Dellaria, a school librarian in Geneva, Ill.

She and her father didn't begin their walking tradition until he was in his 70s.

She would travel to his Tulsa, Okla., home in time for his July 9 birthday, and in the evenings, they would take off on foot, always stopping by his favorite tree.

She started the observance in 1999 to honor him, and to encourage others to appreciate their own relationships.

"My thinking was I wanted to put this treasure out there for other people," Dellaria said in a telephone interview from her Geneva home.

"Taking a walk is not a common thing anymore. You put the kids in the back seat and take them to dancing or soccer, but it's not the same thing.

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Date published: 7/7/2002