I’ve written about my Dad before. Well August 10 would have been his 114th Birthday. Ha! I can assure you he wouldn’t have been happy living that long. But it makes you think about what kind of people your parents were.

Dad was very gifted and creative. He was an excellent artist. He worked in water colors. The only difference between his art and the object he was painting was the medium…his paintings were water color…but other than that, spot on!

As a musician, he played clarinet. He always wanted to be a clarinet soloist. He had taken only the few free lessons at the store when he bought the clarinet. Never studied with a private teacher other than that. Yet he played like any pro you would hear on the radio classical station. Not to mention polka bands. Yeow!

Dad never finished 8th grade. He had to start working to help out at home…parents being Polish immigrants. Yet when looking through his things with Mom after he died, I ran across a certificate that said he was ready to go to college. Hah! I was floored! He had a book collection called “The Practical Man.” And it was a correspondence course. Algebra for the Practical Man, Trigonometry for the Practical Man, etc. I always used to joke about Practical Oceanography for the Practical Man. Hahahahaha! But I finally got the point as to what that collection of books was for. Dad was educating himself! Excuse me while I faint. This level of personal achievement is hard-pressed to find in this day and age.

And then…he was a good plasterer. That means using plaster to build walls and stuff years ago. He would do that as a side job besides his delivery job for a private company. And…he built furniture. It was from kits but the furniture was quite good stuff. I have a small “secretary” he built years ago. Love it! And he built 4 Grandfather Clocks from kits…one for him and Mom, and one for each of his 3 kids.

Dad was in the Marines for 8 years. His 4-year term was up right before WWII started. But like most men in that day and age he wanted to go fight for our country. So he re-enlisted. They couldn’t send him overseas because he had “swimmers ear” in his left ear and couldn’t hear well enough for war deployment. So he became a drill sergeant. He was always a Marine whether currently enlisted or not. I swear I was the only 4 year-old on our block who could fold the Flag. Haha!

Dad wanted at least one of us kids to be a musician. That ended up being me. When I was about 4 he would come around with real music…probably clarinet music…when I was playing outside and ask “do you want to learn this?” Of course it’s your Dad…you say “uhuh!” So he would read me the lines and spaces. I don’t know how many times he did that but a number of years later, when we got our piano, I sat down and looked at real music again and thought “I know how to read this. And I guess you find it on the piano and hit that key.” Of course I needed the piano teacher to make that more cohesive but…I learned to read music early on. Kids’ brains sop of everything when they’re that young.

And…Dad always cared about how he looked. Hair, hands, if going casual then nice casual very often with a suitcoat. He wanted us kids to look good. Our parents in general wanted us kids to look good even if going to a family picnic. Not “roll outta bed” slobs like one sees a lot of in this day and age. Care how you look…how you present yourself to the world…even as a kid.

So. Next time I’ll write about my Mom. Sometimes you don’t really know who your loved ones are until they die, unfortunately. Years ago that was more true than current times. But what an adventure seeing what made your parents tick. What they dearly loved to do. Makes me feel even more strongly about doing what I dearly love my entire life.

What about you? When was the last time you dug deep? Don’t avoid it. Who are you really? Take that journey. You might even start with who your parents are and see what they passed on to you. Trust me…it’s definitely worth the trip.

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