My father was 29 when I was born and my mother was 26.
My father was a lean mean fighting machine. He seemed to be about 100 feet tall at the time. He was only 510 1/2 and soaking wet about 180 pounds.
Back in those days he did smoke cigarettes and may be occasionally a cigar.
My father really loved his wife always cherished the ground she walked on, but would hardly show it.
On Sunday’s we would watch the New York Giants football games. At that time the TV was black-and-white and was called a 16 inch. It had a radio on top of it and I can remember how it used to fuzz to static and would fade in and out. My father would sit there watching that game and God forbid if you came to him with a problem!
My father loved to golf and bowl my father’s other love where horses. My God, he loved to bet on the ponies but only if he had enough money.
Some of my earliest memories with my father were when he would come home from work around 11 or 12 a.m. He worked second shift as a tool grinder at Delco Appliance for over 30 years. He would sneak into the house make himself a sandwich and put on the TV. On usually Friday or Saturday night, I would wake up and come downstairs to sit in his arms while he ate and watched TV. This is how I learned all about science fiction. I will never forget some movies…”The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” ,”Them”, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, and yes the best of them, “The War of the Worlds”. Those tripod machines kicked butt all over the world!
My father taught me how to play golf by swinging a 9-iron from the backyard and hitting the ball over the house to the front yard (and yes plastic balls do break windows.) I would always caddy for him but never could play until I could prove myself to have him say, “That’s my son!”
He played catch with me always wanted me to be a pitcher. I hated that position and wanted to be an outfielder like Mickey Mantel. For some reason at Christmas he got me a football.
I hated it. I could not understand how people could crash into each other standing up and do it again for over an hour, (sorry, dad).
No, I played soccer all of my life. He hated the sport and never went to a game, luckily my mother went to support me.
My father loved his birthday,Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
His birthday he would pretend that another year went by and that he didn’t care, but he loved everything that he got.
Thanksgiving my father could not eat enough turkey ,potatoes, rolls ,beans, and more turkey!
During Christmas, the joy in his eyes as he watched his kids opening their presents was something to behold. God did he love that.
My father taught us how to be fair with everything, be honest to people, and to tell the truth no matter how much it hurt us.
However, in his own way, sometimes he would become Darth Vader. I can remember when he had his teeth taken out and he had a Japanese doctor all he wanted to do was kill him. My father was not a fan of the colored people either. He didn’t believe in a free ride. “Get a job and just do something“, was his motto.
Like I said my father had faults but I loved him dearly.
He hated snowfalls. I remember when we lived on Lake Ontario which was prone to the lake effect large snowfalls. During many winters, he would go out and shovel his car to go to work. He would wake us up the next day asking us to shovel the driveways as all he could see was the radio antenna on his car.
No wonder I moved away from there. I loved the snow, but hated 4 feet of it at once!
When I came home from Vietnam, my family met me at the airport. When we got home, my father took me downstairs and oh my God did we get drunk. I can remember asking him about World War II, but he would shake his head and say that it wasn’t important. He’d then ask about my experiences. I would answer just something about war.
I was devastated when my father died. I was in the state of Connecticut and drove home to a military funeral. They gave my mother the flag but that was never enough. It destroyed my mother. My father was gone. He was my best friend and biggest role model.
