This is my 10th Father's Day without my Daddy. Doesn't seem like it's been a decade since I became an adult orphan. I would hear his voice on the phone, every weekend "Just wonderin' what yer up to" he'd say. Dad usually called on Saturday morns, about 10ish or so. I wouldn't leave my apartment until we spoke. The last few months of his life, Dad wasn't able to call me, so I called him. Those were bittersweet times. I knew life would soon change as we both knew it. I'm still in a 'change' mode--these years later. Dad would get a kick out of that and just chew on that King Edward Cigar.
In fact, if I showed Dad one of these terra cotta pots I'm trying to perfect, he'd size it up, just kinda nod, then use it as an ashtray for those ashes of said King Edward Cigar. Then he'd tell me to just keep on tryin, 'cause I would get one of these times.
Dad liked to fish, loved his westerns, devoured pineapple malts, put hot sauce on his chit'lins, send me at least a dozen birthday cards, ask me if I caught any Andy Griffith episodes, boast about the Iowa Hawkeyes, sip on scotch and milk when he shouldn't be, pet my cats and they would play with the smoke rings from said King Edward cigar, fry me up pork chops whenever I went back to Iowa and we'd sit at our kitchen table and just talk. Those were the BEST times
Just Dad and me.
What I choose to remember
And blessed my Daddy's spirit dances with me still
Sometime I think I can smell that cigar smoke...
1 comment:
Oh Tommy! Your dad was such a hero! What a dad! He sounds larger than life and just as amazing. Happy Father's Day. Take care
x
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