Father's Day Musings

How I miss my dad. (Mom, too...)

As I grew older and he moved into his retirement years - freed from long hours on the job - I discovered this was a guy who was up for just about anything. Since we both loved to travel, we started meeting up once a year in a different location to take in the sights. Often, these were places we'd both been previously - but never in each other's company. He never said no to a destination choice, and once there, you'd never hear him say, "No, I don't want to do that."

I still recall with fondness standing in a lengthy line on a warm evening in New Orleans, waiting to get into Preservation Hall to hear its famed jazz band perform. Once inside, we discovered that patrons squeeze into the room and stand for the duration of the performance.

A little perspective: my dad was not a jazz aficionado (at all!) - but he knew I was. It was baking inside the venue with all those people packed in there. And at the time of that trip, he was nearly 80 years old. But there he stood, with a smile on his face during the entire set. (We actually went on from there to my favorite jazz club to listen to even more music.)  

In the photo below, you see another example of his "Sure, why not?" attitude. Back home in Chicago over the July 4th holiday, I'd taken him out for a bite to eat that evening. As we were making our way back toward his house we realized it was nearly time for the fireworks in my hometown.

I don't know that either of us had seen the show there previously. I can assure you that Barrington, Illinois is not renowned in the northwest suburbs for its spectacular pyrotechnic display. That said, I knew my father had lawn chairs in the trunk of his car, so I asked if he might be game to stop and watch from a distance.

You can see from the picture what his answer was. We had a blast watching that goofy small-town show. 

Happy Father's Day to all dads!