Tag: Dad

Nov 04

Zerk

When I was growing up I remember hearing the term ‘grease zert,’ and I just assumed it was a made-up word. While my dad was skilled at a lot of things (drawing, aviation, mechanics,welding), he was not always known to handle the English language in a manner consistent with the generally agreed upon principles of usage …

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Jan 05

The Marauder

My dad once told me the story of his uncle Delmar’s car: “Your uncle Delmar never had kids, so of course he had lots of money. Back in the 60s this racecar driver told Mercury that he wanted them to make him a car, and Mercury figured that if they had to make one, the …

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Jan 27

I’m just going to have to find myself a new giant

André the Giant died 19 years ago today. André was always one of my favorite wrestlers. When I was a kid, we didn’t watch wrestling at our house. Whenever we were at Grampa’s (my Dad’s dad), every Saturday morning was Bugs Bunny followed by, as Grampa called it, rasslin’. This was back in the early …

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Nov 13

Pineapple

When I was 14 my dad came home with a fresh pineapple (or as fresh as you can get in Missouri). It was the first time I ever had fresh pineapple, and it was amazing. Between me, Dad, and my three brothers, it was too-soon devoured. But there was still plenty of pineapple core left, …

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Oct 17

Alms for the poor

Back in the 60s my grampa, my dad, and my uncle used to drive to Kansas City to stay in an apartment and work all week, then drive back home to southern Missouri on the weekends. Dad said when they got back to the apartment, my uncle would get out an old can and say, …

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Oct 07

My first float trip

When I was seven and my brother was four we went with my Dad and his friend Roy on a float trip. I don’t remember the river, but I do remember a lot of things about the trip. One thing was at one point in the river, over to the side, there was this circle …

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Aug 17

Dad’s Volkswagen

As long as I could remember my Dad always drove American cars, so it was a great surprise when my uncle mentioned that my Dad and his twin brother had once owned a Volkswagen Beetle–for a short time. “They were coming around a  long curve on our gravel road. Our neighbor and his wife were …

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Jul 24

Hardwood, books & movies

I love books, and have for a long time. I think a lot of it stems from when I was a kid, when we would go to the mall. Mom and my brother would go somewhere, and dad and I would go to the bookstore. I don’t know what dad was looking at, but I …

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Jul 19

No, ma’am

My dad, Lonnie,  had a lot of skills: auto mechanic, aircraft mechanic, small aircraft pilot, welder, torchcutter, and storyteller. You can see how most of those overlap quite a bit. So it was a great surprise when he told me he had taken typing when he was in high school. It came out like this: …

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Jun 05

Three crosses

My dad had a funny sense of humor. One time we were passing a church with three crosses on it, and he made this observation: “You know, that one thief went straight to Hell, but he still gets his cross on the church.”