Recalling Daddy...just don't want to forget him...EVER.
Recalling Daddy…
I think the earliest recollection I have of my father was at age 3… he was sick… born with a physical heart defect (chambers didn’t grow together in the center properly). We lived in Levittown, PA and I was home with my Mom. I remember a car pulling up in front of the house and someone getting out of the car and helping my Dad out of the passenger side of the car and up to the house. After that, I remember seeing him lying on the living room floor – not talking, not moving. An ambulance came – I remember the paramedics surrounding him, doing their paramedic thing. They took him to the hospital where he had his first of three open-heart surgeries. I recall being toted back and forth from pre-school to one of my Mom’s friends’ home. I now know that was because my Mom was at the hospital with my Dad for days.
After that, while I was small, I have memories that act like VH1’s pop-up videos. The images pop-in and I remember bits and pieces… I remember him putting loud, sometimes obnoxious music on the big stereo on Saturday mornings and me and my sister, Beth, would, each with an ear as close to the speaker as possible, listening and wailing away at the top of our voices. The stereo was (is – I have it still) a 6’ long, 3’ tall walnut cabinet – a speaker in each end of the front, and a lid on the top between the speakers. Under the lid is where all the gizmos are… the turntable, 8-track, radio tuner and all the levelers and options a gadget-freak like me loves. Anyway… my Dad played old records for us – my favorite was (and is) Johnny Cash and... Mule Skinner Blues. :D I doubt ANY of you know that record... but I have the 45 so come on over & I'll spin it for ya! :)
There’s a quick moment in the car, driving home from church on Sunday… the day my parents forgot my littlest sister in the nursery at church (she was a newborn); the roads were snowy and icy. I remember asking my Dad about the salt and how that worked on the ice; and then they remembered Anne. U-TURN!
I remember my Dad mowing the lawn with a mower that plugged-in. Weird, huh?
My Dad taught me how to drive from about 14 or 15 on… got my first car at 17 - more to come on that...
I think the earliest recollection I have of my father was at age 3… he was sick… born with a physical heart defect (chambers didn’t grow together in the center properly). We lived in Levittown, PA and I was home with my Mom. I remember a car pulling up in front of the house and someone getting out of the car and helping my Dad out of the passenger side of the car and up to the house. After that, I remember seeing him lying on the living room floor – not talking, not moving. An ambulance came – I remember the paramedics surrounding him, doing their paramedic thing. They took him to the hospital where he had his first of three open-heart surgeries. I recall being toted back and forth from pre-school to one of my Mom’s friends’ home. I now know that was because my Mom was at the hospital with my Dad for days.
After that, while I was small, I have memories that act like VH1’s pop-up videos. The images pop-in and I remember bits and pieces… I remember him putting loud, sometimes obnoxious music on the big stereo on Saturday mornings and me and my sister, Beth, would, each with an ear as close to the speaker as possible, listening and wailing away at the top of our voices. The stereo was (is – I have it still) a 6’ long, 3’ tall walnut cabinet – a speaker in each end of the front, and a lid on the top between the speakers. Under the lid is where all the gizmos are… the turntable, 8-track, radio tuner and all the levelers and options a gadget-freak like me loves. Anyway… my Dad played old records for us – my favorite was (and is) Johnny Cash and... Mule Skinner Blues. :D I doubt ANY of you know that record... but I have the 45 so come on over & I'll spin it for ya! :)
There’s a quick moment in the car, driving home from church on Sunday… the day my parents forgot my littlest sister in the nursery at church (she was a newborn); the roads were snowy and icy. I remember asking my Dad about the salt and how that worked on the ice; and then they remembered Anne. U-TURN!
I remember my Dad mowing the lawn with a mower that plugged-in. Weird, huh?
My Dad taught me how to drive from about 14 or 15 on… got my first car at 17 - more to come on that...
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