I Remember Papa

I love this photograph of my father because it doesn't resemble the man I knew in any way shape or form.

The man I knew smoked only an occasional cigar and drank an occasional sherry or glass of wine, barbecued weekends, loved Chinese food and take out, and dressed like Don Draper every work day of his life because he was an ad man.  

This photo was probably taken when he was in the USAF during WWII.  The hair cut, the shirt, the hard-ass look.  I thought this was Frankenstein the first time I found it in the drawer of his high boy dresser.  I was probably 7 or 8 and it scared me to death.  He had to reassure me it was just a photo taken when he was young and he was definitely not a monster!

Dad, circa mid-1940s





I remember my father is as a loving but stern, old-fashioned man with a very rigid set of principles.  He was born in 1910, another era light years from the Sixties when I was coming of age.  We did not see eye to eye.  Yet, he instilled his faith in God, his work ethics, his frugality and his loyalty in my brother and me.  We are the better for those things.


Me, Dad, Mother at Butchart Gardens British Columbia   Summer 1969  Mother & I wear nosegays of violets from Dad



Dad loved an occasional cigar, a pancake breakfast with bacon on the side, a good walk, his dog(s), nature, God and country. He was never so proud as when his two grandsons were born.  I think they were the light of his old age.
 

D

Dad & Grandsons 2005 (age 95)

He was nutrition and supplement minded before it was fashionable.  He read the Rodale books and followed a predominantly naturopathic road when I was young.  I remember him ingesting Tiger's Milk, fish oil, B supplements, high fibre food, whole grains, raw honey.  He walked that walk.  He lived into his late 90s and was still mobile.

Dad presenting retirement document to a retiring Colonel Vandenburg AFB, 2004

For those of you old enough to remember, "My Dad" sung by Paul Petersen on The Donna Reed Show 

For those of you about to be new fathers...  

Theme Thursday: Traffic

Peak Traffic on the 405  Santa Monica Fwy in LA  (Dwell Magazine 6-04-09)

As I sit here watching the Los Angeles Dodgers fold up like a suitcase against the Phillies during Game 5 of the NLCS, I'm thinkin',

  "Well crap!  I was born and raised in LA.  What don't I know about traffic?"

I spent many happy and unhappy hours on the freeways of Los Angeles, zooming along in the Sixties when the city was relatively uncrowded and crawling along in the Seventies as I drove from my first married domicile in Woodland Hills to a job on Wilshire Blvd.  It was only 24 miles but it was a guaranteed hour in the morning and 1 1/2 hours home,  if I was lucky.  We relied on the big AM radio stations to give us the freeway updates so we could try and go the fastest route, be it surface streets, through the hills, or even along Pacific Coast Hwy known as PCH to the locals.

During my senior year in high school and my first two years in college, I worked for my father during summer break.   Our family home was also in Woodland Hills.  His office was on Hollywood & Vine.  He taught me the ins and outs of driving the freeways, often keeping to the slow lane because, as he explained, so many cars got off and on you could actually move more quickly.    If there was an accident alert on the radio, he'd take Ventura Blvd. into North Hollywood and pick up the freeway.  Sometimes we'd drive over Laurel or Coldwater Canyons into the West Hollywood side, then east to his office. 

Dad's office building is still there.  It's a landmark from an earlier time.  My memories are sweet.  I grew up in a magical time, in a city where everything really seemed golden.  I learned to drive in the toughest traffic city in America.  I am not always a good driver but I can negotiate in traffic and I do drive defensively.  That is the secret.  Always drive as if the other guy is going to make a mistake... not in your favor.

As the DJs might have said, once upon a time, "Time for a musical interlude from one of our favorite performers..."

Nobody does it better than JT.


This just came to me and, since no one else has it up, I'm posting. A true classic!