Monday, February 28, 2011

My Quirky Dad

I recently wrote about my father and the life that he lived back home before a communist revolt forced him to leave and start over. I have since decided to start writing the memoir of his life. I have decided not to write anymore stories about his adventures. I want to save the rest for his book. However I want to share things he does that make me giggle.


One day I went to his house. I noticed he was wearing a nice blue-gray jacket. So I decided to compliment him. He was so proud of his jacket. He thanked me for the compliment. Then he tells the story of the jacket. First he tells me he got it at thrift store. Then he goes on to tell me that he thinks the previous owner belonged to a private club. I was intrigued so I asked how he knew. He tells me because of the tag. He opens the jacket, and shows me the tag on the inside. This is what I saw.


One Sunday after church we decided to wait for my parents arrival. The Spanish mass starts about 30 minutes after the English mass ends. When they finally arrived, my parents make their way over to our car in the parking lot. My father was dressed in his "Sunday Best". My wife and I tried not to laugh. He started with a powder blue guayabera. That wasn't so bad, most Hispanic men his age usually wear that kind of shirt. The pants were peculiar. They were blue leisure suit pants. In the same shade as Homer Simpson's pants. The best part were the blue gray sneakers with the Velcro straps.

My dad is also a bit of an inventor. When I started dating my wife she came over to our place. We were in the kitchen, when she notices something strange. There was a piece of masking tape attached to the top of the window frame in front of the sink. On the other end of the tape was a magnetic clip. She asks me what that was. I told her it's my dad hat dryer. She laughs and says "stop lying". I told her I was serious. He would stand in front of the sink, hand wash his work hat. Then he would clip it and let it dry over night to wear it the next day. Later that afternoon she goes to get something to drink. She comes back laughing saying that he had a wet hat clipped up there. I told her so.

When I was 19 I used to sell cars at a dealership. A friend of mine that worked at the dealership was renting our spare room. Me an her used to get home at about 11pm. One night when we get home my parents bedroom door was closed. As I walk past the door it opens up. He standing there in his boxers handing me something. I reach for it and closes the door and goes back to bed. He gave me a handful of Trojans. I laughed with my friend so hard about it. What was funny to me wasn't that he gave me the condoms, it was that he bought me "Extra Large". I guess he though people called me "fat boy" for another reason.

My dad has a sick obsession with radios, flashlights and radio/flashlights. He's always buying portable radio's from the thrift store. He's got all kinds of old school walkmen. Some are just a radio. Some are the yellow waterproof ones. His cell phone even has FM receiver. He recently bought a hand crank radio with solar battery. The cool thing is the radio has Arabic writing on it. His latest acquisition is a slim 80's Sony radio with the dual tape deck and silver knobs. Then it's the flashlights. He's got them in every size imaginable. He even has a battery operated headband light. Whenever the power goes off, he'll be sitting in the dark in his recliner with his headband light on. The best is a combination everything. It's flashlight with a radio and a multi tool.



My favorite thing about him is that fact that he has no rhythm. Sometimes we'd be in his car. A tropical song will come on the radio. He'll start to sing along. When we come to a stop, he'll start tapping the top of the steering wheel like a conga. What he is tapping sounds nothing like the song. I sometimes wonder if he's thinking of the same song.

He's a great dad. I know one day when he's gone, these are the things I will remember the most, and will make me smile.

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