June 15, 2014

Gunny


Grandma always laughed when she saw this picture.  Gunny is on top….so turn the picture sideways.  I laugh too.

I never really knew my dad except through the stories of others.  He was brilliant.  He had lots of friends, they said.  He also was a very funny man….told the very best jokes.  He also had learning disabilities so severe that his father wrote a book on how to learn.  He got his LL.D before WWII, and came home an alcoholic.

Once I counted the martini’s they had at lunch.  Eleven of them. 

He sat in his corner chair, and every evening he drank himself into a stupor.  

I always wanted to know my father.

Gunny on his “one lung” Harley Davidson.
                                                 
Gunny during his college years.


  • Himself:  Taking Margot and Zoe to lunch.
  • Herself:  Very appreciative that one child adopted G as her Dad.
  • Reading:  The very last Tony Hillerman.
  • Dear Abby puts it best:  "DEAR READERS: I would like to wish a Happy Father's Day to fathers everywhere -- birth fathers, stepfathers, adoptive and foster fathers, grandfathers, and all of those caring men who mentor children and fill the role of absent fathers." LOVE, ABBY
  • Balance:  Following along behind G today.  He’s in charge.



  • 10 comments:

    1. You just let me think I'm in charge

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    2. Poignant personal memories of a gifted man's life before and after war. The story of one of my uncles, my dad's brother, was similar. Much heartache for my uncle's wife and children and my dad.

      I don't know the whole story of how his life turned around. I am just thankful that his last couple of decades were free of alcohol and a time of healing his family relationships. I admire him, you and others who continue to make hard choices moment by moment. God bless.

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    3. Fatherhood is a complex quilt and so many Dad's have fallen down that rabbit hole. My dad was the quiet type. He disappeared when he entered the room and later after I moved away, my brothers got to know him and I never really did!

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    4. Connie and Bill drove up to visit David for Father's Day. But David slept through the visit. We were up all night with the kitten who ran out of the bathroom every time I opened the door and tormented Johnny my dog in his nighttime crate. This led to Johnny barking like a mad dog.

      Bill took the kitten home with him today. I guess we can't have a cat.

      Both Connie and Bill have lost their birth fathers and adopted David as their father.

      My Dad did not drink after age 40. He was not ever a big drinker, however. He was an aloof, distant person. He did much for me and I loved him as a child. We grew distant from each other in the last decades of his life, after Mom died. I wish I had known him better.

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    5. I often think 'knowing' your father is something learnt in later life - sadly for me I was never around him in my adult days.
      Wish I had been!
      Cathy

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    6. Too bad about your father. Sad.

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    7. Aw, that's too bad about your dad. War is hell.

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    8. I supposed I'm not surprised at the brilliant intelligence of your father and evidently the sensitivity that comes with precocity. You, the apple, fell not far...:)

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    9. He certainly looks as if he was a fearless rock climber.

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    10. It sounds like your dad had some demons he needed to chase away after the war. So sad.

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