It’s a cold and wet Sunday afternoon. I am basking in yet another win from my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers, and now with a full stomach I am on the couch in the music room, watching a Marx Brothers movie, ‘A Day at the Races’. I love these movies. Not so much slap stick comedy, but word comedy, as in dialogue between the actors, and when the brothers Marx made a movie, you really had to pay attention to the dialogue or you would be left behind. But this bit-o-blog is not really about movies at all. It is about my Dad. I called him Dad, my kids called him Grandpa. The other grandkids and everyone else called him,’Pops’. That name is a long story that I won’t get into right now. The whole reason of this writing is the fact that my Dad has been gone for 10 years now. He passed on October 8th, 1999. It doesn’t seem possible that 10 years have gone by so fast. Dad had been sick for a few years. He had many types of cancer. The last time that the doctors found cancer was on the back side of a kidney. He went into chemo, but if I remember correctly he hated and stopped soon after. He was dying.
Now my Dad was the best Dad he could have been. All of his work was in retail all of his life, and he was very good at what he did. When he was at home he watched a lot of television and he loved to build model airplanes. A few times I got to help him, or at least hang out with him. I get my sense of adventure from my Dad. He loved to explore. We would go off and find old abandoned buildings and just walk through them. Museums were also a favorite place for Dad and I to go visit, or maybe just drive until something or someone caught our eye. He took me down to Beale Street, in Memphis, Tennessee, back in the early ‘60’s. Of course during that time period, we were possibly the only white people walking up and down the side walks. But his 7 year old son loved the blues and it excited me and that it was part of my heart. He wanted me to experience the real thing, and this, he thought was as close as we could get. I still remember the smells, the neon and the music of my heart pumping out of each and every door way we passed. It was breathtaking.
Dad didn’t play much with me. I can only think of a few times that we actually played catch. He did help me to be a real little boy. Bought me a BB rifle and taught me how to respect the weapon and shoot it. He also taught me to work hard at what ever I do, and to do the work properly. What he taught me more than anything else was integrity, and to be honest.
I think I’ve done the best I could do since then. Yep, I’ve fallen. I’ve screwed up a few times, but I think he would be proud of me. I am proud of him, that’s for sure. He raised me the best way he knew how. And that’s all that counts.
Well, this is where it all links up. Dad turned me on to the Marx Brothers, and the Three Stooges. What more could a son ask for?
One memory I will always have in the last few days of Dad’s life, is the fact I got to feed him his last solid food. It was a pleasure to feed him and to watch him eat pancakes, eggs and bacon. Every bite seemed to me that it was his last one. The face he made was, well, there no words to describe it really. Pure joy is the only thing I can come up with. I also prayed with him. I had tears running down my face. We told each other how much we loved each other, and we lay in bed together and just held each other for a while. Soon after that, he went down hill fast, and was gone within a couple of weeks. I miss him. When I see a movie like the one that’s on, or I hear some music I know he would like, I smile. I look up toward heaven and say thanks Dad. Thanks for the kind and sturdy heart. Thanks for love, comedy, and adventure. I love you.
George William Deahl Sr.-1928-1999
We all knew it was coming. For days now the local weather said it’s coming. Yeah, yeah, we have heard it all before. So when I went to bed last night, I check, nuttin!. Then this morning, it began. Actually, it had been snowing a while. And now we were smack dap in the middle of it. Our first big snow of the season, and on top of it, winds out of the north from 25-40 MPH. OUCH! And to make matters worse I had to be at the doctor’s office at 945AM. Got home and was thinking about work, and that no one would dare venture out to buy clothes, right? So I get a call from the boss. She tels me not to come in,”We’re shuttin’ it down, going home. No one is coming in.” YES! So hence the snow day for me. So most of the morning I’ve been cleaning up the I Tunes and adding more stuff too. Taking a few pictures of the blizzard of 2009, “Well, that;’s what the local TV stations are calling it anyway”. Had some homemade chili, and that was good, and keeping warm with the French press, and Dunkin Donut coffee, so it ain’t a total loss. So I will enjoy my day off, and maybe build a snow man later. Yeah right.