A Double Happy Father's Day

I've now lost both my Father and my Father in Law, so I wanted to share this story.  It's not really much of a story, but it means a lot to me and my wonderful bride.

Because Dad had no daughters (at the time) he thought he would never get the chance to walk a daughter down the aisle.  When we were about to be married he made a very special request of my Father in Law to be.

Because he loved Maria and was as excited as anyone to have her as part of our family he asked if it would be possible to show that by meeting my Father in Law and my bride half way down the aisle, and walking with them the rest of the way.

I didn't learn until years later that my Father in Law was very uncomfortable with this but he loved his daughter and my wife loved my Dad and wanted to do this for him.  He reluctantly agreed.

I am eternally grateful to my Father in Law for doing that for my Dad.

Dad always was, well, let's say, a rule bender.  I hope the two of them are together somewhere now enjoying the memory because I sure am.

Happy Father's Day, gentlemen!

Buzzing Uncle Jeff

Dad, Mom, me, Shawn, the pool, the fence and the Kennedy

I hope I can remember all the Dad and Uncle Jeff stories, but here is one especially for summer.

When Dad was in the CPD, at one time they offered a program for officers who wanted to fly the police helicopter.  Dad applied and had some flying lessons before they canceled the program, probably because of budget constraints.

At the time we had the pool in the backyard on Kostner and the six foot red wooden fence.  The pool was within about two feet of the fence on the south side, facing the Kennedy.  It was fairly common practice for young men to climb out of the pool and onto the fence.  They would then jump into the pool.  I had seen it done many times, but I think that by the time I was old enough to try it, we had replaced that fence with a chain-link (cyclone) fence.

Apparently Uncle Jeff liked to startle Dad when they were younger.  I say startle because, of course Dad wasn't "scared" of anything, but if you jumped out of a hiding place and yelled boo you could catch him off guard and make him jump.

Actually, now that I think about it, the only things Dad was afraid of were Mom and his children.

Ryan on the fence: one of the scary things

Anyway, Uncle Jeff liked to hide and jump out to see Dad jump.

One day while Dad was getting flying lessons in the police helicopter Uncle Jeff was visiting the house and swimming in the pool.  The instructor let Dad fly up the Kennedy and they were going to practice auto-rotating.

Auto-rotating is when the power goes out in a helicopter (the engine dies or some kind of power train failure).  The blades and the system are designed to keep rotating.  As long as you were going a certain speed forward you can ride the free spinning rotor blades safely down to the ground.

They weren't going to land, the instructor was just going to give Dad a taste of how auto-rotating feels.

As it turns out they were very near our house when the instructor turned off the engine.  So, there was Dad, coming in out of the south west and the low afternoon sun in a silent helicopter.  And there was Uncle Jeff climbing out of the pool and standing up on the fence getting ready to jump in.

Dad turned on the loud speaker and said, "HEY YOU, GET OFF MY FENCE!"

Dad said that after that day it never bothered him if Uncle Jeff tried to startle him, because Dad knew that he would never be able to top that.

Papa and the Greeks

I'm sitting in my in-laws house right now, so I'm reminded of the first time I told Papa about my new Greek girlfriend.

I was standing in the kitchen and I had just driven up from Campaign.  I told my Dad that I had just started seeing a new girl and that she is Greek.

"Does her father work in a grocery store or a produce store?"

"He works in a produce store, how did you know?"  I asked, astounded because her father was indeed working at a produce store at the time.

"Does she have a brother named George?"  He asked.

"Yes, how did you know?"  I was really surprised because I knew this was the first time he was hearing about my future wife.

"All Greeks have a brother named George and all Greeks work in either a produce store or a grocery store.  Does she have a mustache?"

"HA, there you're wrong, she doesn't."

"Two out of three," he shrugged and wished me luck. 

Just to let you know, my Father and my in-laws got along great.  Also, after eating my Mother-in-law's, he refused to eat anyone else's lamb.  He would say, "When you've had the best, why have anything less."

Once when they were in Florida they went to a place famous for their lamb and the other people he was with goaded him into ordering theirs.  He did.

The maitre d came over and waited patiently for the verdict.   "Pretty good," he said, "but still not the best."  He then explained how to do it better.  The maitre d took notes.