Thanks. The details you share brings your dad alive for me. I guess our memories are in the details. Father’s day and my father’s b’day always fall within a couple days of each other, sometimes on the same day. I still miss he unconditional love and support. Because him, I became me.
I did realize it. I don’t ever remember Dad criticizing me or giving me unrequested advice. Maybe because he stopped drinking when I was 5 with the support of AA. I was aware that I had a father who was very different from most others. He was a big man, so his gentleness was reassuring.
A great blessing....to have entered his life at a time when he was moving towards healing and recovery. Did you have any brothers? I always felt that my father was outnumbered in an otherwise all female house.
I love this portrait of your father. He is so real to me here. I also always love when you write about the family's passion for words and word games. Now I'm thinking about possible anagrams from "metropolitan." My mother was a terrible snob about words and pronunciation, and mispronounced many words herself!
I forgot to include the fact that my father was in favor of memorizing famous texts like the Gettysburg Address, the Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the Constitution. You could be a liberal and still be patriotic back in the day.
I have read most of what you have written on Substack and your book. I have never detected a sardonic edge. Maybe. Maybe there is a touch in this story. Why did your father’s law career not happen? Anyway for a sardonic edge you write beautifully.
One person commented recently that my tone is irritable which she likes. Hence the title of my last piece, "It Takes All Kinds." That edge is almost always there. I'm trying to allow it without privileging it. My father graduated from law school in 1927 and got a job that was connected to the Democratic Party patronage machine. When the guy he was connected to lost his election a few years later, he was out of work. It was the Depression. My sister was two or three and he needed to make money fast. He went into buying and selling like his father before him and eventually became an antiques dealer.
Thank you, Zoe. I have discovered that some people call this a "writing practice." It has the quality of a spiritual observance and I'm very grateful for it.
Thanks. The details you share brings your dad alive for me. I guess our memories are in the details. Father’s day and my father’s b’day always fall within a couple days of each other, sometimes on the same day. I still miss he unconditional love and support. Because him, I became me.
I wonder if you realized that when you were a kid? It's hard to get the full picture when you're in the thick of it.
I had 3 younger brothers—only one left, the youngest.
I did realize it. I don’t ever remember Dad criticizing me or giving me unrequested advice. Maybe because he stopped drinking when I was 5 with the support of AA. I was aware that I had a father who was very different from most others. He was a big man, so his gentleness was reassuring.
A great blessing....to have entered his life at a time when he was moving towards healing and recovery. Did you have any brothers? I always felt that my father was outnumbered in an otherwise all female house.
I love this portrait of your father. He is so real to me here. I also always love when you write about the family's passion for words and word games. Now I'm thinking about possible anagrams from "metropolitan." My mother was a terrible snob about words and pronunciation, and mispronounced many words herself!
I forgot to include the fact that my father was in favor of memorizing famous texts like the Gettysburg Address, the Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the Constitution. You could be a liberal and still be patriotic back in the day.
I have read most of what you have written on Substack and your book. I have never detected a sardonic edge. Maybe. Maybe there is a touch in this story. Why did your father’s law career not happen? Anyway for a sardonic edge you write beautifully.
One person commented recently that my tone is irritable which she likes. Hence the title of my last piece, "It Takes All Kinds." That edge is almost always there. I'm trying to allow it without privileging it. My father graduated from law school in 1927 and got a job that was connected to the Democratic Party patronage machine. When the guy he was connected to lost his election a few years later, he was out of work. It was the Depression. My sister was two or three and he needed to make money fast. He went into buying and selling like his father before him and eventually became an antiques dealer.
Just beautiful. So glad you keep writing and we get to keep reading.
Thank you, Zoe. I have discovered that some people call this a "writing practice." It has the quality of a spiritual observance and I'm very grateful for it.