An insidious rivalry has developed between me and my baby-boomer brothers. It's not who has the fanciest house or the fastest car, or even who has the brightest kids.

'Tis better to give the best gift for dad

Our unspoken competition is who can buy Dad the best birthday, Christmas and Father's Day presents.

We gave up on impressing Mom years ago. She's the queen of practicality and has always urged us to get usable gifts - socks, cake pans, dish towels and other mundane household wares.

What can you do with a woman who's thrilled to get a weed whacker but deems cut flowers or jewelry "frivolous" gifts?

So we set our sights on Dad. He appreciates the oddball items that come his way in our quest to one-up each other.

It was my oldest brother who raised the bar to a nearly unreachable level a few years ago when he gave our father a collection of CDs featuring accordion music from around the world. Dad is an avid accordion player and declared it the best gift he'd ever gotten. He still listens to the CDs and pores over the accompanying literature.

This year, my oldest brother did it again when he got Dad some sort of documentary of the Aleutian Islands near Alaska, where our father was stationed during World War II.

Dad would always tell us stories of what it was like to be on a ship in the arctic waters, how the icebergs made deafening sounds when pieces of ice would break away.

Now Dad's in his glory, reliving his old Army days as he watches the documentary.

A few years ago, when NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw's book, "The Greatest Generation" was published, I immediately bought a copy for Dad. After all, the book portrayed ordinary Americans just like him who were called to service in World War II.

I thought I definitely had the best Christmas gift for Dad that year, but no. Another of my brothers outdid me. He had waited in line at a book signing in Vermont to get a copy of "The Greatest Generation" signed by Brokaw. So I schlepped my copy of the book back to the bookstore.

I fared pretty well on Dad's 80th birthday with a gift basket of his favorite snacks, some microbrew samples and old John Wayne movies. And I scored points with the coffee-table book on farm tractors.

Since then my creativity has been on a downward slide, and as you fellow baby boomers can attest, the older your parents get, the harder they are to buy for.

When all else fails, my father gets gift certificates to his favorite restaurants. He appreciates them, but probably doesn't savor them. They're no one-of-a-kind accordion CD set.

Last Christmas, in a last-minute panic, I choked and bought Dad long underwear.

Long underwear!

My mother must have been working overtime in my subconscious mind - get something practical, practical, practical…

Father's Day is just around the corner, so I'm asking you, fair readers, do any of you have unique gift ideas that have impressed your own fathers? My reputation is at stake here.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com