Remembering my father today brings back a fury of memories. Overall he was a good father of four children, a good provider with a big heart. Like many fathers he could be unreasonable at times trying to understand a teenage boy’s motives for recking the car, or driving around on a Saturday night with six girls in the car all going to the Saturday night dance. We had 1966 bought new aqua marine country station wagon that held 8 passengers I tried to fill to capacity on Saturday nights. At 50 cents a gallon for gas I could afford gas for the night.
My father was a patient man who raised three boys and a daughter. He was always respectful to my mother even when she got mad at him for supporting my expulsion from High School for not abiding with the strict dress code. I was elected to Student Council Secretary in my Sophmore year on the promise to get rid of the strict dresscode. No hair over the ear, no jeans or boots, no mini skirts this was the late sixties of Woodstock and rebellion, the Vietnam War and military draft. A good friend and bandmate was expelled for not cutting his hair and went to court and won. My father who was on the School Board stood up for individual rights but my mother God Bless her was furious that her son would be expelled and embarrassed at her bridge club and other social gatherings. She was so angry with my father and I that she refused to wash our clothes or my father’s uniform. He was an Immigration Supervisor and later a Port Director. After a few weeks of my mother’s boycott and anger he asked me if I would cut my hair or my mother vowed not to cook our meals do our laundry and make his life and mine miserable. I agreed to make peace and grant my mother her wish and peace prevailed in our home and my father and I compromising made our lives happy again and we ate good meals and had clean clothes.
Happy Father’s Day to all Dads and as a son of a great dad I appreciate and respect all Dads who are.
My father, grandfather and me.
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