By WAYNE WASHINGTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 18, 2000

It's Saturday morning and that means cartoons for Marvin Daniels Jr. and his girls, Jalia, 18 months, and Brittney, 8.

TAMPA -- No one ever said doing the right thing was going to be easy.

Marvin Daniels Jr. knows that better than most people.

A decade ago,the Fort Pierce native was preparing to study culinary arts at Georgia's Albany State University on partial scholarship. Just before he was supposed to leave for school, his girlfriend, who lived in Tampa, told him she was pregnant.

He was just into his 20s and totally unprepared. "I was like a deer in headlights," he said.

Facing the responsibility of fatherhood was scary, but telling his own father was worse. Marvin Daniels Sr. was set on his son going to school. And when Mr. Daniels was set on something, that something usually happened.

After Daniels picks up Jalia from day care, father and daughter will catch the bus home. Daniels has no car and relies on public transportation and friends to get him -- and his girls -- where they need to be.

"He was like, "Tell me you're joking. Where's your head? What are you thinking?' " Daniels said. "That ended the conversation for like two years."

Daniels, 32, never went to school. He settled in Tampa, got a job at Denny's and set about being a father to a baby girl. But his girlfriend left two months after the baby was born, saying she never had a chance to be young, Daniels said.

A series of breakups and reunions followed. After a second girl was born, Daniels' girlfriend left for good.

Daniels said he knew he had a tough job ahead, raising two girls on his own. Most of his single male friends stopped coming around. He stopped dating.

Everything in his life revolves around the girls, 8-year-old Brittney and 18-month-old Jalia.

He makes $7 an hour in shipping and receiving at Dillard's. He lives in a two-bedroom apartment in the University of South Florida area, paying the rent with federal housing assistance. He has no car.

And on this Father's Day, he'll think how fortunate he is.

"My life is beautiful," he said, holding Jalia and looking at the homemade Father's Day card Brittney gave him. "I have everything I want."

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