[Langley968]

With Jerry just joining (and a reply from his son Eric) and also Dave sharing with us his son's pumpkin carving ability, I decided that we should start a "Father Son" thread and see where it goes...



Although my son is not in the P-camp, here are a few recent pics that I want to share.



   



The pictures were taken with my iPhone, and as such, the second one is not very good quality.



   



My son and I also went out on Saturday "car shopping". He is looking at an Acura RSX Type-S as DD (currently drives a '93 Civic) and I am looking for a "new to me" DD (need to replace as fast as possible the '06 Camry!). We test drove an RSX Typ-S, an S-2000 and a Jetta 1.8T. We had a hard time behaving ourselves!



Look forward to other "Father Son" posts but also reactions from anyone who wants to chime in! <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/wink.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[Fox944]

awesome pictures. Jay will love it just as much as i do (if not more). I'm a huge fan/proponent of the NSX. They are awesome cars.

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[DaveN]

I feel small. The last time my son and I went car shopping we came back with a Jetta 1.9 TD. Zzzzzzzz

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[rxter]

A 4-day road trip. Was one of the best 4-days I've had so far. We are planning to conquer the Rockies next summer. By then Mike will be able to share the driving. Full posts under "rxter's big adventure".

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[egebhard]

Here are my Dad and I's 968s. My Maritime Blue 92 and his Cobalt Blue 93



Eric

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[Chris Vais]

I have only one child, my son now 27 years old. Sadly, he got caught up in drugs at age 13, so the only Father/Son things we did for a 10 year period consisted of attorney visits, family counseling in and out of rehab, seemingly endless medical expenses, well you get the picture. The things that I wanted to share with him, building up a race car, teaching him to sail, to fly fish, attending vintage sports car races, family vacations, college, were either sacrificed or cast by the wayside.



Today, he is clean and sober. I see him 3 or 4 times a year for a few days at a time. My wife and I made the decision to spare no expense and to do whatever was demanded of us to keep from dying on the streets or going to prison. In that regard we have succeded. But I go to the races by myself, fly fish by myself, sail by myself. The race car was sold to pay legal fees and the last "family" vacation was in 1997. There have been none since.



Those of you who are fortunate enough to be able share things with your children, take every opportunity to do so.

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[rhudeboye]

[quote name='Chris Vais' timestamp='1289263608' post='100872']

Those of you who are fortunate enough to be able share things with your children, take every opportunity to do so.

[/quote]









[size="4"]Parenting is sacrifice! [/size]

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[jeff968]

Greg with the 968s,







and here he is a few years ago with another one,

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[Ryan]

No picture of the kid and myself, but here are the father and son trucks. We just put new strut bearings in it Sunday and last night we did paint cleaner and a wax. The boy loves his toy. It is a fast little devil and I hope he stays out of trouble.



He is learning to work on cars with my help. I could not really get him interested before, but it looks like this will be a project for a while.

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[White968]

Chris I know what your going through, My wife's sister is a Heroin addict. I did not sign up for this but life has been a rollercoaster for the last seven years dealing with my sister in law. Glad to hear your son is sober.

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[Chris Vais]

White 968:



It looks as if the final blow from all of the drug related stuff is about to hit us. Our son's problems cost us well in excess of $600,000 to deal with. Unfortunately we used the equity in our home to underwrite some of the drug related costs. With the down turn in the housing market we are now upside down on our loan to value, with an ARM that is indexing upward we will likely loose our house to foreclosure. I have a good paying job, am current on everything with a good credit rating, yet I cannot get the bank to talk about a loan mod as the loan is nonconforming (greater than $729K)and I'm not in default yet, but that will change. We'll either get a loan mod or be forced out of the house.



I've had people, family members included, roundly criticise my wife and I for the choices that we made. None of the critics have had to walk in our shoes so they don't understand the horrible choices you are confronted. I won't tell you what I had to do to get my son into rehab. It is too horrible to revisit, but it saved his life in the end and that is really the only point of the exercise. I thank God every day for the gift of his sobriety.



It it happens that we loose the house as it appears will be the case, we will resettle somewhere and regroup.



I'm sorry that this is so far off topic. Somtimes you just need to say these things to get stuff off your chest.



Always treasure the time you have with your kids.

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[968Syncro]

Hi Chris,



I was genuinely shook up when I read your posts; had to get up and take a walk outside. I am so sorry you family has had to go through all that turmoil. Darn addiction causes some incredible damage, and it goes so very far and deep. I am very happy to hear your son is sober, so many people overcome it and make it through their substance abuse problems and it sounds like your son is well on the way.



I'll mention my son as well, he has messed up a bit here and there, have had to go rescue him from police a couple of times, and a couple of totaled cars. The dreaded phone ringing in the night. And his one older sister also had trouble, for example bailing her out of the central New Orleans lockup the day before Christmas (which they say is worse than Detroit or Manhattan). She is doing excellent now, I'm a grandpa, and she and her husband are great parents and have become very responsible. As a parent is sure seems worse than what we did at that age, we messed up here and there as well. I think all 3 of them are going to be OK, somehow the teens times are really rough these days.



But you know what? My Dad always hung in there for us, he was always there for us, always; and I swore I would always be there for my kids, just like you have done. Yeah, I took more damage than I expected, but have no regrets at all for helping them when in need. I really admire the courage of you and your wife -- there is nothing like kids, there are worth everything.



So I started reading this thread thinking I might show a picture of me and my son. I hope it isn't in bad taste given your story, but since it is the 2 of us doing 968 stuff, I figured it might be OK. This was from the San Diego fun run last summer, we had a real good time, he drove 1/2 of it, scared the pants off of me as he was keeping up with Rxter and the others.



All the best to you Chris and your family.



Roland



   



Hey, it is really obvious what would be the best go-fast goodie for my 968 -- weight reduction! For the driver not the car!

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[Chris Vais]

Roland



Thank you for your kind words. I believe that someday I will be able to post a picture of my son and I doing something together.



Chris

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[Langley968]

The posts in this thread have been very good. Some very cool pictures and comments.



PCA has a saying that is something like: "It's about the people more than the cars", or something like that (I searched around but could not find the saying). That is very true about this Forum. Our 968's are the "glue" that bonds us together, but it is the great people that assist each other through this site that makes this a great Forum!

Assisting each other can come in a technical form. There is great in depth knowledge among the people involved with this site - truly appreciated! <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/wink.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

Assistance can also be in providing humor, and there is a LOT of that here - thanks for all the laughs! <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/laugh.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> )

Assistance can also be in a personal form, such as Chris's post. We can read, reflect, react, encourage and learn from each other.



I had the same reaction as Roland when I first read Chris's post. I was "choked" up and did not know how to reply at that time. I have a friend whose son did NOT make it, and ended up being shot to death over his drug debts. That father is still reeling from the loss more than a year later.

Chris, it is my prayer that you will be blessed with peace in your life.



Relationships in life, and what we do with them, are the thing we must treasure the most!



Look forward to a new thread about Fathers and Daughters. My seventeen year old has a Mazda Miata. Wonder where the incentive for that came from...

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[Chris Vais]

Fathers and daughters, boy could my brother speak to that topic. Three beautiful daughters. one each in college, high school,and grade school. Even the dog and the cat are female!!

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[gryphon]

Chris I feel you pain. My son, a college student, has pretty much kept himself out of serious trouble, except for a ridiculous number of unnecessary and expensive tickets--illegal parking (many), illegal left hand turn, running a red light with a skateboard (don't laugh, it was an expensive fine), a careless parking garage accident in his brand new Kia Forte, etc. Yes he smokes weed and I think has dabbled with Ecstasy and rave parties, neither of which I have any control over. (A condoning mother does not help).



But, a big but, I have recently lost two close friends, both in their mid-forties, to drug related matters. One a fatal car accident while under the influence of meth and the second a drug relate suicide.



I pray that you son continues to toe the line.



Tom

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[DaveN]

I feel remiss in posting to this thread as Langley968 started it over postings we had in other threads. Call me slow to react, that's why I'm not allowed to cross the road by myself yet <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/tongue.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



After reading the trials, by fire it seems, from other parents here I felt hesitant to post anything too cheery but I am glad you guys are sharing for better or worse. If my son ever catches this thread he will probably not talk to me for a fortnight because he still has troubles admitting some of his childhood and to some extent young adult hood. He was born 8 weeks premature and subsequently suffered from a few developmental chemical imbalances. This led to about 7 years of screaming, tantrums and violent behavior before being diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome. He was formerly labelled with ADHD et. al. and we medicated as such with horrible results - there goes another closet door.



That's all the background required but suffice it to say that maturity, strong will (on his part) and a remarkable attitude of "take me the way I am or leave me alone" had paid off. He is an avid non-smoker and drugs are aspirin.

His is now 23 with a B.Sc. in Marine Biology and working on contract to the worlds largest farmed fish producer as an Environental Biologist. He has eyes on doing his Masters in 2012.



How does this relate here? His room was lined with Porsche pictures for 15 years and always dreamed of having one. I think it started when he found out his Grandpa owned a 356, we have one surviving B/W picture.

The day I bought the first 944 and brought it home he thought it was for him and kissed me on the lips-now that's weird!



Ever since then he has been the driving force to join the PCA, the Forum and for the last 4 years be on the organizing committee of the yearly 3-day getaway our region holds. Since he takes all the pictures there are non of us together, guess I'll have to be aware of that. Here is one of him accepting "Enthusiast of the Year" in 2009 and one of me at the VIRPCA gettaway with my sidekick Eyegore. Be aware, drinking rum and coke from a Bodum coffee pot can cause headaches - later.



I am thankful that we ended up on the happy ending side of one of these stories. Now if I could only keep him out of my Scotch and Guiness.

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[Chris Vais]

I resurrected this Topic, there have been no comments added since 2010, to let those of you who commented on my posts, what has transpired with my son and I. Today I am a semi-retired emeritus winemaker, still engaged in the wine industry, but as wine educator for an artesian winery.

 

More importantly my Son has remained clean and sober since 2010. These days he lives in Miami Beach and has an excellent job with Tesla. He leads a team of individuals whose job is to find places where Tesla can contract high speed charging stations. As it happens, there are so many Teslas in Miami the wait in line to charge you car can some times be as long as an hour and a half. He is the number 1 producer in the country in terms of locating sites and contracting with the property owners.

 

My wife and I very proud of sons sobriety and his successful career. The emotional and financial toll was more than worth it.

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[MCL968]

Chris, this is such great news. Bravo to your son and your entire family. It takes a lot of love and effort, and the understanding that sobriety is a process, not an end.

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[Rap]

Sobriety is a one day at a time process.

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