Memories

The song playing on the radio this morning when I got back into the car after dropping E off at daycare was Luther Vandross' song "Dance With My Father." I love that song. It makes me cry everytime I hear it. It makes me think of my father (deceased) and remember.

My dad was a 'tinkerer.' He fixed everything, plumbing, electrical, cars, anything. We never had a repairman in our house. If my dad couldn't fix it, we just got a new one (like TVs...he couldn't fix TVs).

He was also a joker. I remember how he used to tease my mother. Like the year we went to the Grand Canyon. My dad would walk way up to the edge of the canyon causing my mother to scream, "Virgil! Get away from the edge!"

Or we would be driving on a deserted mountain road and he would cut the corners. "Virgil!' my mother would yell. "I'm just saving on gas," he would tell her, chuckling.

My mother was the worrier. My dad was the joker.

He was born on a farm in Minnesota though he hated the winters and left as soon as he could. I know he spent some time in Texas and California. He always said how he crossed the Golden Gate Bridge the first day it opened. I don't know when he moved to Seattle, but he was working at the Bremerton Ship Yards during WWII. He married my mother after the war and me and my brothers were born a while later.

I am sad that he never got to see my wedding or meet my son. I wish he could have met E. He so loved his other grandchildren, I know he would adore my child.

There are other songs that make me remember him, Dan Fogleberg's "Leader of the Band," for instance. The last verse puts me in tears everytime:

I thank you for the music
And your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom
When it came my time to go --
I thank you for the kindness
And the times when you got tough
And, papa, I don’t think I
Said ’I love you’ near enough

I'm crying now. I love you Dad.

Do you have songs that make you cry?

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