Well some of you may know that my Dad died on Nov 2, 2008 in Soldotna. So I flew that night back to Soldotna via Anchorage and arrived Monday morning at 7a to help Mom with the service and all. It was snowing in Anchorage and 4 degrees F in Soldotna when I landed. The service was nice, on Thursday the 6th, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help (yes is that a good Catholic Church name or what?). My ex-wife flew in from WA and my sons came down from Anchorage. I being the only one of my brothers and sisters to show up (that is an entire other blog post) said a few words at the service. So I want to share those words with u’all also. I really didn’t write any of it down so I’m paraphrasing and adding in the things I missed also ;-)
Let’s see first I thanked my ex-wife for showing up, her and Pops were always close. Second, I named all of my brothers and sisters and thanked everyone on our behalf for coming to remember our father. Then I told about the different sides of Dad that I fondly remembered.
Soldier Dad- Pops served 30 years in the US Army. 3x combat veteran, a tour in Korea and 2x in Vietnam where received a Silver Star. Soldier Dad would send us cassette tapes every 1 or 2 weeks. He sent me a map of Cambodia and Vietnam and with each cassette he would send the coordinates of where he was located on a slip of rice/tracing paper so I could overlay it on the map and see where he was. Pops used to let me stay up and watch him shine all of his brass and place his ribbons on his uniform. He would shine everything down to the last oak leaf cluster. Soldier Dad gave me his field jacket in high school so I could be cool, taught me how to spit shine my shoes for ROTC. He gave me his special forces pin to wear on my Boy Scout cap.
Outdoor Dad- used to take all of us camping. We would load up the Olds Vista Cruiser and go to Fielding Lake or the upper Chena River. We would catch lots of graying and cook them, wrapped in foil, seasoned with lemon pepper, roasted on sticks, over the fire. I caught my first fish with Outdoor Dad; it was a rainbow trout at Otter Lake on Ft. Rich I think I was 9 or 10. I was too squeamish to clean or eat it, which didn’t sit well with neither Outdoor Dad nor Soldier Dad for that matter. I’ll talk more about this with Cooking Dad. Outdoor Dad took me hunting, skeet and trap shooting he was a great shot I was not. We used to go fishing on Ft Wainwright behind the golf course. Armed with a thermos of russian tea Outdoor Dad would catch a graying or two with his fly rod and bait us up for burbot (a fresh water cod like fish). We would drink tea in the summer twilight and dad would reenact how he would call pigs in his youth. Pops would go, “Wooooooooo PIG pig pig pig” with his voice dropping lower and deeper with each pig. At the end, it was so deep it would sound like James Earl Jones.
Then there was Fun Mischievous Dad - he used to play cards with us and would slap card on his forehead. Dad was fun to play cards with. One weekend or spring break when I came home from college mom was getting on Pops about something so he decided that we (he and I) needed to go to the hardware store. Which was followed by a side trip to the VFW, where we proceed to get rather tipsy (everyone should get drunk with his dad at least once). I think Dad just wanted to give mom other options upon our return home.
Cooking Dad – Most of you know Cooking Dad. He could fry fish in a deep fat fryer and still have spotless glasses. Cooking Dad to assist Outdoor and Soldier Dad made me clean fish, cut up meat and chickens to overcome by blood and guts phobias. Of course, the next step was start the grill, seasoning the meat advancing on to cooking it. Yes, Cooking Dad taught me how to cook on the grill. Some things Cooking Dad would not do. One year I was having a construction party for some work at my house in Anchorage an I asked Cooking Dad for his gumbo recipe. Pops laughed and firmly said, “NO, son how many ppl are you inviting”. Me made a huge pot of gumbo for all and then billed me for the ingredients. Hmmm... now that I think about it the same thing happened years before when I asked for his red meat rub recipe.
Well, those are the sides of dad I shared with everyone that day. I ended reading a poem about Pops, I wrote years before. I left out many facets of my Father; Rule Abiding Dad, Discipline Dad, Fastidious Dad, to name a few. Pops wanted his ashes spread in the flower garden at home. With single digit temperatures in Soldotna, the spreading of ashes will not take place until the spring. I love and miss my Dad
Let’s see first I thanked my ex-wife for showing up, her and Pops were always close. Second, I named all of my brothers and sisters and thanked everyone on our behalf for coming to remember our father. Then I told about the different sides of Dad that I fondly remembered.
Soldier Dad- Pops served 30 years in the US Army. 3x combat veteran, a tour in Korea and 2x in Vietnam where received a Silver Star. Soldier Dad would send us cassette tapes every 1 or 2 weeks. He sent me a map of Cambodia and Vietnam and with each cassette he would send the coordinates of where he was located on a slip of rice/tracing paper so I could overlay it on the map and see where he was. Pops used to let me stay up and watch him shine all of his brass and place his ribbons on his uniform. He would shine everything down to the last oak leaf cluster. Soldier Dad gave me his field jacket in high school so I could be cool, taught me how to spit shine my shoes for ROTC. He gave me his special forces pin to wear on my Boy Scout cap.
Outdoor Dad- used to take all of us camping. We would load up the Olds Vista Cruiser and go to Fielding Lake or the upper Chena River. We would catch lots of graying and cook them, wrapped in foil, seasoned with lemon pepper, roasted on sticks, over the fire. I caught my first fish with Outdoor Dad; it was a rainbow trout at Otter Lake on Ft. Rich I think I was 9 or 10. I was too squeamish to clean or eat it, which didn’t sit well with neither Outdoor Dad nor Soldier Dad for that matter. I’ll talk more about this with Cooking Dad. Outdoor Dad took me hunting, skeet and trap shooting he was a great shot I was not. We used to go fishing on Ft Wainwright behind the golf course. Armed with a thermos of russian tea Outdoor Dad would catch a graying or two with his fly rod and bait us up for burbot (a fresh water cod like fish). We would drink tea in the summer twilight and dad would reenact how he would call pigs in his youth. Pops would go, “Wooooooooo PIG pig pig pig” with his voice dropping lower and deeper with each pig. At the end, it was so deep it would sound like James Earl Jones.
Then there was Fun Mischievous Dad - he used to play cards with us and would slap card on his forehead. Dad was fun to play cards with. One weekend or spring break when I came home from college mom was getting on Pops about something so he decided that we (he and I) needed to go to the hardware store. Which was followed by a side trip to the VFW, where we proceed to get rather tipsy (everyone should get drunk with his dad at least once). I think Dad just wanted to give mom other options upon our return home.
Cooking Dad – Most of you know Cooking Dad. He could fry fish in a deep fat fryer and still have spotless glasses. Cooking Dad to assist Outdoor and Soldier Dad made me clean fish, cut up meat and chickens to overcome by blood and guts phobias. Of course, the next step was start the grill, seasoning the meat advancing on to cooking it. Yes, Cooking Dad taught me how to cook on the grill. Some things Cooking Dad would not do. One year I was having a construction party for some work at my house in Anchorage an I asked Cooking Dad for his gumbo recipe. Pops laughed and firmly said, “NO, son how many ppl are you inviting”. Me made a huge pot of gumbo for all and then billed me for the ingredients. Hmmm... now that I think about it the same thing happened years before when I asked for his red meat rub recipe.
Well, those are the sides of dad I shared with everyone that day. I ended reading a poem about Pops, I wrote years before. I left out many facets of my Father; Rule Abiding Dad, Discipline Dad, Fastidious Dad, to name a few. Pops wanted his ashes spread in the flower garden at home. With single digit temperatures in Soldotna, the spreading of ashes will not take place until the spring. I love and miss my Dad
