HAPPY BIRTHDAY POP

Today, September 9 is my Dad’s birthday. He would have been 91 years old, and when he died at 74, I remember him as if he was 35 or 45 years of age, it is a memory that blends time and recollection into one face.

Not matter what he looked like at any time; he was always the same guy, “Tony” as his friends and family called him. He was the Dad that returned home from work, wearing a grey fedora, Journal American tucked under his arm as he climbed the two flights of stairs to our apartment in Brooklyn, He was the Dad that had a coffee and cigarette in the toilet while reading the NY Daily News in the morning. Leaving for work in the morning with his lunch bag under his arm, and the night before garbage in a bag in his hand to be placed in the garbage can in our front yard. (He once deposited his lunch in the can and carried the garbage on the subway from Brooklyn to Canal Street in NYC.) Dad watched the Dodgers and later the Mets on TV at night and took us for a ride in the summer evenings to the docks of Patchogue and Carvel ice cream afterwards on those hot humid nights.

He was always there with a job for me when I needed one, or a ride home from work when I need that too. Taught me the value of working hard and in spite of failure, getting up and trying again.

Dad always helped those in need, and when he couldn’t physically help, he gave them money. He wasn’t a rich man by any means, but he was rich in children and later grandchildren. He died before his mother from cancer and was devoted to her, and expected his children to be respectful of her.

He lived during the depression so was always frugal with his money, never once taking a vacation away from the house, or owning a new car until much later in life.

But he had one thing, he was always or seemed to be: happy, always whistling, whether climbing the steps to our apartment, working or driving somewhere.

He wasn’t perfect, just my Dad, and at 62 I miss him. He didn’t always treat me well, but he was there when I needed him most, and I know he cared about all of us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!