WHEN YOU MISS SOMEONE

I was looking at some photos of my Dad, and of course I immediately could feel the way I felt when he was alive. There is a certain mood: a certain sense that one feels when we see our parents. That feeling can come to us as we think of them: I guess it is always present.

With Dad it was a sense of expectation from him, and he from me. He was a spark for his daughters, they could do no wrong, and they all loved him. The relationships were all different, but the underlining fact was that he loved them all, and I can tell you very honestly, equally.

He was hard on me: I always had to have a job, always had things to do around the house, and was expected to go to college. There was no opportunity I could pass up, no reason to pass one up, and no complaint could be listed: just work and work some more.

What was he doing? He was making me realize that whatever I did in life, I would be responsible for it. Wherever I went, whomever I associated with, I would bare the consequences: good or bad! What he was saying was: if you have any children, YOU are responsible. If you rob a bank, YOU are responsible, and if you marry and have a family, you better be responsible, and better prepared than you are now kid!

I don’t regret much of my childhood, I wish I had a brother, but four sisters was a wonderful blessing, more money would have been good, but I’ll take the need to work and fend for myself, it taught me many lessons in life, all from the master hand.

Dad was not a linguist, not a wealthy man, he came from the common elements of immigrant parents who did not speak English, and worked very hard to get to where he was, just like other children of Italian, Polish, German and Slavic non-English speaking immigrant families. It was the best of times, and indeed the worst of times, but it was my time, and I think I prospered from life lessons taught by people like my dad, parting his experiences to his son. There were other dads out there, ones that I respected, people who taught by their experiences, their examples, and who I understood to be just like Dad, so there was instant respect.

I hope there is a heaven, and if there is, I know Dad is somewhere up there, fixing some widow’s screen door, or giving some poor person a ride somewhere in his old jalopy, maybe wiping his windshield clean because his blower doesn’t work.

I know that even in heaven, he would shun life’s conveniences of both having and not giving.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY DAD, and THANKS!
Love,
Your only son

Happy Father's day to some really great Dads I know, and grandpa's too. Grandpa Manning, my brother-in-laws, all past and present, my best friend Phil, my neighbors both past on and living, and a great grand dad and dad, Ava's grandpa from the old neighborhood: Jim.