Every father is a hero to his son (excluding the real bad types)
but my Dad was even more than that.
We flew a flag on our house every sunny day he was home to put it out
in the light.
We went to every Memorial Day Parade every year without fail.
It was like missing Sunday church if we didn't go.
He was really distressed at the division in the country and the
protestors, and our lack of national will to act in the 1970s.
We trimmed the gravestones of our ancestors in the cemeteries and
remembered that they have a flag on Memorial Day ( the VFW always omitted his
Uncle Paul who was in the Cavalry WW1 - died of tuberculosis 1921 )
He always put the 5 of us and our Mother ahead of himself.
Filled the family car on Sunday mornings and we went to church as a
family.
Piled us in the car on Sunday afternoons and took us places of
American history.
Told me the best thing that ever happened to me was that I was born
an American.
Drove the oldest car in the driveway to work, had the least clothes.
Followed us downstairs on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought
and revelled in our joy.
He never drank hard liquor in front of us - beer, watching a Sunday
afternoon ballgame on TV, wine maybe with dinner in his later years, only on Christmas / New
Years when we were kids.
( when he went out with other guys from Wonder Bread, he drank SCOTCH
one told me recently )
Never a bad example in front of us
Never argued with my Mother in front of us - in 24 yrs I knew him, I
remember 3 times he raised his voice in anger.
Told me a man who hits a woman is a coward.
Put my Mother up on a pedestal and always helped her around the house
even though he worked from 4am-5pm
5 days a week.
Washed the cars, cut the grass, painted walls.
He was quite a man...
He deserves to be remembered
I will never forget him
