My Dad

He was a tall man. I am not certain of his height but I stand 5’9 and he was taller than I. His hair was dark brown almost black. It was thin and he kept it short. He wore it parted to the right side. Most of his adult life he had a grizzly beard that was peppered with gray. He was a thin man with a small potbelly. He never wore jeans. He was always dressed casual. He hated cotton socks. He wore dress socks with nice designs on them.

He believed men should have short hair, and women should have long hair. He believed men should wear casual clothing, and women should wear skirts and dresses. He was not a fan of jeans at all.

The man was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was raised in Mansfield, Ohio where I would come to grow up when he and mom would decide to have children. He served in the Vietnam War and after he was released from duty they decided to have children. He did not enlist he was drafted.

He was a strong man. He was a father to five children and husband to a woman who became mentally ill. He eventually had to take on both rolls of parenting. He had to be the father and somehow be the mother. He took care of all the household bills, and done most of the shopping that needed to be done.

He worked out of the home repairing electronics. He was not alive long enough to see the computer age we have now. He did however get to see computers but not at this pace. He loved computers. We owned a commodore 64 and he enjoyed it very much. When the Nintendo came around he enjoyed playing doctor Mario.

He was a chess player and a very good one. He played often and encouraged all of his four oldest children to play. He was a religious man and tried his hardest to instill the Christian belief in his children. When he wasn’t working he was reading a book. He loved nonfiction. He loved reading religious books.

He watched television a lot. He loved western shows and movies. He watched a lot of news and kept up with what was going on around the world. BBC was on often in our home. He enjoyed watching wildlife shows. He was a hunter. He loved the Twilight Zone. He was political but refused to vote. He was an intellectual and freely had open conversations with me about religions and political events.

to be continued….