The vivid memories are the times I raced against the other policemen’s kids at the Fraternal Order of Police picnics usually coming in first and my dad placing me on his shoulders strutting around. The times he, dressed in his police uniform, would attend the track and field events at Linden school watching me run the dashes and the 4 team baton races. The moments the JCC plays were finished and it was time for curtain calls and my name was mentioned as director/choreographer watching him stand hands above his head clapping and smiling. The father son haircuts at Jerry and Son Barber shop across from Sterrett School schmoozing about the events of our day. He as my best man walking down the aisle with me with small tears flowing from his cheek holding onto my arm tight enough to never let me go, but with just enough room to permit me to start my own family. The day we went to the Squirrel Hill Police Station down in the basement and most of the “big’ kids from Denniston Avenue got sworn in a Junior Police. Those memories are always with me easy to recall, remember. They are also used to remind me of the intangible minutes with my dad.
My dad was able to dissect the ridiculous from the real. He could take the traumas and dramas of my every day life and help me to find solutions. He was able to sort through the silly, dig deep for the simple and present options I had no idea existed. Of course there were more brash memories of him sitting between my sister and I at a Vincent Price movies fest at the Liberty Theater, taking us out to the sand bridges in Lake Erie holding us up when the sand collapsed but even moments like those were a nonverbal lessons that HE would always be the great protector. Upon the birth of my first, Adam, my dad was there to embrace my son and proudly tell me I am now in charge of the world. he passed before my daughter Dani was born but somewhere in my list of things to do and be with my second child were the wonders of my father.
It is Father’s Day, and thankfully I can understand the meaning of this day having had a man of honor as a dad and two children who have helped remind me of the lessons learned as I grew up. I know that being a father takes more then DNA, it is encompasses courage, wisdom, sincerity, honesty, and of course unconditional love. For all of us who have been loved by a man we called dad, who was or is a best friend, a comrade, a role model, a confidant, this is a day to celebrate loud and proud. Happy Father’s Day
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