Tom Junod

It was all, you know, a mechanism of seduction of some kind.

He would stand in front of the mirror in the morning.

I'd be on my way to school, and I'd go in to say hello or goodbye, and he would be standing there in his black bikini...

in front of this enormous mirror in his room, and he would say, look, look at this body.

Have you ever seen a body like this?

And he had a body.

I mean, he was built like Charles Atlas.

He was actually a really good dad in a lot of different ways.

He was attentive.

He was prescriptive.

He taught me how to play football.

He taught me how to box.

He would kiss me hard goodnight on my head or in the morning when he went away on a trip.

You know, he was a super...

attentive dad.

At the same time, he was terrifying.

Like, I was terrified of my father.

He was not a violent person around the house, but the amount of force that his presence had was just the kind of thing where you felt like

if you came too close to him, it was like going too close to the sun that you would be obliterated.

The toughest thing about growing up with my dad was having this warm, overwhelmingly, you know, demonstratively loving person who at the same time