Reading about Lori's great loss I started thinkin

[Oss]

of my dad

How about a thread of you and your dad?

I will start off with one just when he retired



He joined the navy on a special 1 yr program by getting the highest score on the entrance test. On the Coral Sea he was in charge of the fire control computing and guns. There was rampant antisemitism and it was compounded because he grew up originally in Far Rockaway dirt poor and played with black kids his age and played ball with them on the base in Great Lakes.  When he got out he went to City College at night graduating in 3 yrs while working full time and then law school at night in 3 years still working full time.  We never had much but he instilled a work ethic in me and did the best he could.  

He gave me my first job in law and we became partners, then I helped him retire  As I have told some of you the deal was I paid him a certain amount for a "few" years and I could not tell mom he retired. He would drive to work between 10 and 11am  nap, call friends , let me take him to lunch, nap and go home around 3pm  This went on 5 yrs.  "I love your mom" he would say but I am not ready for 24/7 yet

He passed in 2013 as I was leaving for the airport to go to GOTF.  Yeah I put that event off as we Jews go in the ground in a day. no wakes for us.   Miss him daily

[scooperhsd]

My dad passed away in 1994, (age 57) from lung cancer - he had smoked cigarettes for many years (probably since he graduated from high school, if not before). FIL died in 2004 age late 50's - cause unknown. I miss them both.

[Valkorado]

Wow.  Good idea for a thread, Oss!  Such a tough a subject for me, so bittersweet.  I have never loved a man so dearly. Instead of explaining all the reasons why, I'll let my pictures speak of him.  A wonderful, funny, gentle, thoughtful, and sometimes stubborn man.

Dad enjoying nature. He loved the outdoors.



Dad's folks (and kids).  Very Christian, and poor cotton farmers. They had poultry, pigs, cows (dairy and beef).  Dad said they had love, and always food.  Tended the fields without "modern" equipment (hand picking).  Oh the stories he would tell.  Dad was one of five kids, and had three of his own.  I'm the little feller.

Years after losing his big brother Warren in war, dad volunteered for the Army.  Dad was only eight when Warren left and the last thing he told him at was, "Go kill some Japs".  He cried relating that to me, a rarity. Thankfully dad's two year stint was not during wartime, and he kept moving on.



Our fam.  Wonderful mom.


Brave pheasant hunter! I'm guessing this was taken somewhere around Hays, KS when he was studying toward his master's degree and we were living there.



Thanks to football (he was extremely good, scouted as pro at 165lb. offensive lineman -- didn't happen, of course) he went on to college via scholarship, and ultimately earned a PhD in Biology (Oklahoma State). Breaking away from the Texas cotton fields!





Dad with me, the non-trad grad.  I did graduate from Western, right here in Gunnison.  Dad taught biology there for three and a half decades.  He loved teaching.



Even before the terrible issues we are seeing now dad was no fan of illegal immigration, to put it mildly.  He was so outspoken about it I bought him this hat as a joke.  He would wear it -- but never, ever in public!



Dad with mom, his soulmate and the true love of his life.  They met in college.



I loved them both so, and miss them every day.  It's what we all have to deal with (if things go as expected), but losing your  folks sure leaves a void that never goes away.  The grief gets better, and the wonderful memories at the least will match the sorrow of their absence.  Eventually.

[John Schmidt]

I was adopted at age 2 1/2 so he was the only "dad" I knew, I found out later my biological father died of lymphoma at age 56. My adopted mother died of cancer when I was 10 and dad did remarry since he was only in his mid 40's. When my adopted mother passed away dad had a single long gravestone made with two spots on it; one for my mother Marie, one for him. On her side was her name and dates of life: 1903-1948. On dad's side of the headstone, he had his name and dates of life: 1906-19__.  His date of death left blank obviously since he was still living. Dad was quite healthy and lived a long and productive life, and it kept getting closer and closer to the turn of the century. That meant his headstone would need some modification from the life dates already there, a change from 1906-19__ to whatever year he passed after 2000. We kept teasing him about it, asking what are we to do if he lived beyond 1999, he always told me & my sis do what ever we liked...it wasn't his problem at that point. The last time I saw him alive was August, 1999, on our way back from 2 wks. on the bike in northern New Mexico. He turned 93 the following November 9th, died two days after Christmas. So now his dates of life read: 1906-1999. It happened with four days to spare so we didn't need to have the headstone revised, I think he did that on purpose.

[hubcapsc]

This thread sent me looking through my picture stash. I've posted numerous
pictures of my father here since he rode motorcycles. Here's his mother in
the first truck I remember in front of the 1957 house I grew up in, in the snow...



-Mike

[Moonshot_1]

Wonderful thread Oss. Thanks for bringing back memories.

My Dad and I were on a trip to Sioux Falls one day and he began to talk about his Army days.
As we came in to Sioux Falls an airplane flew over head to land at a nearby airfield. My Dad said that he had an opportunity to train as a pilot but passed on it and he kind of regretted it and wish he had tried it.

Fast forward about 6 months. I remembered this conversation and went down to the local airport and signed Dad up for a flying lesson for his birthday.
Picked him up, asked him if he remembered out trip to Sioux Falls and his thoughts about flying as we pulled into the airport.

Told him he's getting a flying lesson. Yes, he was surprised.

Instructor took us up and Dad got to fly the plane. Even more surprised.

This is us when we returned with the plane.

[Ramie]

My Father bought the telephone company in a small town in Minnesota a year before I was born.  He also repaired radios and tv's after they came available.  He also tried his had at a couple of other businesses after he sold the telephone company to one of the larger companies.  He was a kind and patient man and like many of his generation avoided showing too much affection. 

When our house was struck by lightning and started on fire, he stayed at the switch board down stairs because the volunteer fire fighters had to call the switch board to find out where the fire was.   He and my mother raised 5 sons and 1 daughter.  Every time I hear an old song on the radio I think of him, he loved music.   He passed in 93 and my mother 10 years later.

[carolinarider09]

My dad was the photographer in the family.  Still have his Bolex 16mm movie camera from 1945 and his "East German" 35mm Eka (I would have to look and verify the name).   He used them all until sometime in the late 60s.

So, here is my father, John.  

Dad was very active in photography as I said above and he was also very active in model airplanes, free flight and U-controlled and sail planes.  And he love a good steer system.  I still have some of his tapes and discs and his 16mm film movies.   The most important are the songs he played at Christmas.  We play them every Christmas.

Dad in Hawaii after the wars end.  He was a U.S. Marine fighter pilot.  I don't think we ever talked much about it or what plane he flew.  I think a lot to people who fought in WWII were like that.

Dad is the Marine on the right at the beginning of the video.

https://rumble.com/v1tbvzn-my-dad-1945-hawaii.html

Dad, Christmas 1970 - 71.  I don't know what he was opening but I bet it was related to his Stereo System.



This ia a picture someone took, maybe my wife or could have been me (I sort of took up what dad did what 35mm cameras and transitioned to Astro-Photo's)

Dad and my Grandson Jacob, Dad's Great Grandson 2001- 2002.  



The picture is a picture of a picture on our Great Room bookcase.  

Dad was a Forester.   He worked for International Paper Company.  Generally he was in charge of the locations where he worked.   We lived in Barnwell, SC until the Savannah River Project started up and we had to move to Aiken.

We lived in Saluda, SC for several years.   My formative years.  So many memories. 

Dad was transferred to Conway, SC and dad bought a house for us in Myrtle Beach, SC.   That was a very special place back in the late 50's - 60's.  The visitors/vacationers came starting with Sun Fun Week in June and ending with Labor Day.

Easter was the invasion from Canada. 

Finally Dad retired to White Oak, SC that is where the picture of Dad and Jacob was taken.  We flew model airplanes, model rockets and sail planes.   He passed way March, 2012.

One last picture.  Dad and a Family Party in White Oak, SC.   Dad is the gentleman in the center of the picture wearing the tie. 

[Oss]

carolinarider, funny you mention cameras

my dad had a polaroid land camera, I still have it and the big brown carrying case as well as a smaller box type polaroid he bought me for my birthday in 1968.  He loved takin pics of mom on vacation. No scenic pics, just mom lol

I took pics of the armstrong/aldrin/collins lift-off and first steps  (of course black and white tv is what we had then) on the moon somewhere in the house.

We have boxes upon boxes of slides that I must someday go through and convert to digital format

Looks like a winter project !  Maybe we will get to meet when we are in Surf City after the 29th of Sept.

[Willow]

My father passed some eighteen years ago.  Unfortunately, I find no pictures of him and me together although we certainly together often.

Here is a picture of me returning from his memorial service in Arkansas and thinking of him.


 
Daddy grew up in western New York (Sinclaireville).  He was born in 1925 and so graduated high school during World War II and immediately joined the Navy for abbreviated college and flight training.  He completed flight training as the war was ending so he didn't participate.  As the Korean conflict was beginning his physical indicated he was subject to asthma.  They gave him a choice of going active as a non-flyer or exiting the service.  He chose to exit.  He worked his life professionally as a welder and welding engineer, but on his own time as a shade tree mechanic for many.

My father was raised in a non-Christian home but converted in his early adult life.  He taught Sunday School almost his whole life and for a time when I was about five he preached at a mission church on the "colored" side of Longview, Texas.

He raised four children of which I am the second.

He was not a motorcyclist that I knew of previously but was known to ride some of my motorcycles when the chance arose.  While I was in the Marine Corps I was sent overseas and left a motorcycle at his home in Oklahoma.  it was a Honda S90 that I had bought to appease my longing to ride while I was stationed in Philadelphia and weekended in Maryland.  He was riding that S90 when the screws to the front fender let loose causing the fender to rotate to under the tire.  As the bike came out from under them my younger brother hung onto Daddy's back and they slid down the road.  Gary was uninjured but Daddy was road rashed significantly.  That was a point of humor for us for quite some time.  Interestingly, years later Gary was also with him when he crashed his Cherokee during take-off in a Kansas field.

Daddy was a good man.  He was very generous.  He had strong beliefs that led him to be a little strict at times.  I have always wanted to be like my father and I do miss him often.  Just a short time back I had a horrible nightmare and woke up screaming, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"  He wasn't there when I awakened.