Father S Day

When Washington County District Judge Dana Moylan Wright was young, she watched as her father, Circuit Judge Daniel W. Moylan, led the courtroom. These days, she is the one on the bench, and her father — now retired — is still offering advice. "He always has good advice. I always take it, requested or not," said Moylan Wright, 45. Her passion for law comes from those early days in the courtroom, watching her father work. She said it was the personal touch he brought to law that inspired her to follow the same path.

LEITERSBURG -- Dads, granddads and future dads came together Saturday at Brook Lane for an ice cream and croquet social as a part of Father's Day weekend. The third annual Scoops & Wickets fundraiser offered silent and live auctions, a moon bounce, ring toss and tic-tac-toe games, croquet, boccie, face painting and homemade ice cream. "We had a lot of families today. It's good for the families," said Kay Hoffman, director of development at Brook Lane. "I think a lot of people come because it's Father's Day weekend, and it gives generations a chance to be with each other and have a good time together.

Fred Kreiger gave up coaching baseball at Boonsboro High School in 2003 so that he could attend more of his kids' youth league games in the spring. Little did he realize that in his effort to become more of a dad, he would find out what it's like to be a mom, too. "People have asked me if I miss (coaching). I haven't had much time to miss it," Kreiger said. "There's not time to think about other stuff, just getting the kids from one place to another. "That's actually become more my lot now. " And though that's been different for Kreiger's son Fred, 16, and daughter Caroline, 13, it's been mostly a good thing that their father is around to take care of those "motherly" tasks.

Mike Ramsey and Harold French have never met, but they probably know all about each other. They both want to leave a mark on the world, but neither seems worried about becoming famous. Fame pales in comparison to being known as a great father. That makes today - Father's Day - special to both men. The holiday serves as a national reminder about a bigger job each has taken on readily and seriously. "The greatest responsibility for a man to have if he has kids is to raise them the right way," said Ramsey, manager of the Hagerstown Suns.

I was standing in church recently when I noticed a family in front of me that was taking up an entire pew. There was a mom and dad, grandma, other children and what appeared to be aunts and uncles and one baby. They were doing the pass the baby thing, trying to get the infant to fall asleep during Mass. What I noticed was that even the family members who weren't rocking the baby still were swaying back and forth after the child left their hands. There was no music playing, they were just rocking.

When Katie Moore is asked what makes her dad special, she has a quick answer: "He's very understanding and he also is fabulous at what he does. " Katie's dad, Terry Moore, is a music teacher in Frederick County, Md. Katie, 15, of Smithsburg, is glad that she and her father share an interest in music. Enjoying music and performance together was the inspiration for Katie's entry in The Herald-Mail's Father's Day drawing contest. Katie sketched a portrait of herself and her dad, based on a recent picture taken of the two before they attended a performance of "The Music Man" at the Riverside Center Dinner Theater in Fredericksburg, Va. Katie was the winner of the drawing contest and will receive a $50 prize.

bobp@herald-mail.com In the most important game of his young career, Gabriel Hernandez took a simple approach. For the minor league pitcher, Sunday's game was all about a father and his Sun. Hernandez pitched the second no-hitter in Hagers-town Suns franchise history Sunday, a dominant 1-0 victory over the West Virginia Power before 2,301 fans at Municipal Stadium. The victory moved the Suns into a tie for first place in the South Atlantic League's North Division on the last day of the first half.

Don't know what to get your dad? Try a published drawing. On June 16, we'll run the best drawings of dads on the Family page in The Morning Herald and The Daily Mail. We'll run as many submissions as we can, and the artist behind the top drawing will win $50. A panel of judges will vote on the winner. If you win, whether you give the prize to your father is completely up to you. We'll run as many submissions as we can. Submit your drawing with your name and daytime and evening phone numbers by e-mailing it to Lifestyle Editor Jake Womer at jakew@herald-mail.

"There were really a lot of nice articles in the paper Sunday for Father's Day. But didn't anyone know a month ago it was Mother's Day because it just seems like nobody remembers mother like they do father. And most of the time, fathers don't amount to anything. " "I completely agree with the person who called in about the rent in Hagerstown being so high. I live alone, I make about $9 a hour and my rent is $500 a month. You tell me how anybody is supposed to live on that with a car payment, utilities and other monthly bills that you have to pay. It's impossible.

In 1964, psychiatrist Eric Berne released his most famous book, "Games People Play. " Most people know the title more from the 1968 recording by Joe South, or from one of its many "covers" by artists as diverse as Barbara Mandrell and Jerry Lee Lewis. But more than 40 years after the book's arrival, I found myself thinking about it last Sunday, on Father's Day. The book's premise is that much of what we do is learned behavior, something passed down from generation to generation.