"You stayed with my Dad? Did you get any sleep?"
Laughing he admits he did not but had a grand time anyway.
Dad had a Ph.D. in snoring.
His friends drew lots to determine who shared a room with him on their trips.
Regardless the impression he's left is deep and passionate.
"Ah, I miss your Dad," I often hear when they encounter me.
Whenever I write about him someone gets in touch to explain the void he left in their life.
I understand.
Unless I was traveling we talked every day and he always told me a joke. Sometimes they were corny but often were funny as Hell.
He loved them and relished in telling jokes.
He was a funny and gracious man who watched Charles Bronson movies, hated war, loved the pungent aroma of the Marsh and was utterly addicted to sports and looking at pretty girls.
He was a passionate family man who delighted when he spent time with some or all of us though he always exercised the patriarchal right to fix his plate first.
I think about the things he misses now. All of us for sure! His friends and the wild and crazy things they did (and they did extreme wild and crazy things!). He would delight in Sarah and her girls and be beside himself that his granddaughter Maggie is expecting. He misses Mom.
I miss our daily talks and the times we'd sneak off and share pitchers of beer.
Dad's last beer story is told by my son Jeremy who was with Dad in Athens.
"Pull over son," Dad tells Jeremy, "and go get us two beers."
Jeremy does as he's told and they share two tall ones in brown paper bags before returning to my sister Angi's house.
I just love that and now Jeremy and I delight in sneaking off for beers too.
So as I do on every year, I'm going to pour Dad and me one in a cold frosty mug and toast all of that.
You'd be shocked at how you're still missed, discussed, talked about and how every single one of those damn jokes are making the rounds.
Here's to you Dad!
Happy Father's Day!
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