The men in my father’s family were charmers, all of them – including Dad! My sister recently told me a wonderful story about Dad, which I must share. I assume this happened in the summer of 1975 because that’s the only time in the ’70s I didn’t have a job that would have kept me from taking the trip I describe.
In 1975 I was in the process of divorcing my first husband, and was living with my parents, stony broke and unemployed. My mother worked for the local library, and planned to attend a library convention in Los Angeles; we decided I would go with her for company. This left my sister and my father living in the Napa house together for a few days. Dad was retired at this time and was either 67 or 68 (I don’t recall the exact date).
My sister says one evening while Mother and I were gone, Dad came into the living room all dressed up in a suit and tie (and probably a hat; Dad was a very sharp dresser). She asked him where he was going, and he said he was going to Santa Rosa to the senior center dance. “You can’t go to the dance all by yourself,” she objected, whereupon he said that of course he could, he was going to dance with all the widow women. He went out the door and didn’t come back until 2 AM. My sister complained that she had sat up waiting for him, and he said that was her payback for all the nights he sat up until 2 AM waiting for her!
When she told me this, I asked her if she went to the dance with him, and she said he wouldn’t let her – he was afraid she’d cramp his style! I couldn’t have posted this while Mother was alive, but she’s gone, God rest her, and it’s too classic not to share.
