My father owned a business that allowed him the luxury of coming home, once in awhile, around 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

We would park ourselves at the kitchen table and watch the Mel Jass Matinee Movie …. munching on Ritz crackers with peanut butter and watching “The Duke.” I cherish those memories … just me and my dad.  All was right in the world.

John Wayne was a man’s man and so was my father, Eddie. How ironic that they both died on June 11, 1979. (There must be some kind of symbolism, in there somewhere)

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about my dad and it’s funny the things that you remember the most …

• The love he had for my mother.
• His strong forearms.
• How handsome he was.
• Laughed until he cried … mostly at his own (half told) jokes.
• His phonetic spelling.
• Teaching me how to play Craps … he loved Vegas!
• Always threatening my mother that he was going to buy her a baby elephant for the backyard.
• Hiding my sister on the top shelf of the linen closet (during a game of hide and seek) and forgetting her there.
• Scaring the sh*t out of my mother by donning a wig and a butcher knife, (while she was showering) after they saw “Psycho” for the first time.
• Standing a full-size lady mannequin in front of the kitchen sink and leaving it there for my brother who was way past curfew. Bet my brother still has a scar from falling over himself running out of the house like a crazy person.
• His Mickey Mouse jeans.
• Throwing change over the deli counter (onto the ledge) at the Boulevard Del.
• His white patent leather shoes that he wore until they were dead.
• His temper. Might be why I learned to run so fast.
• Ripping the kid’s phone line out of the wall when it would constantly ring at dinner time.
• Losing a two ton safe (that was a gift from a client that owned a building in old downtown Minneapolis) off the back of his truck on the highway. The mystery of the safe was in the Star and Tribune newspaper the next day. (you didn’t think he could stop and try to pick it up, did you?)
• He made the world safe.
• He loved us the best way he knew how.
  

I love you, Dad!

Father's Day Poems...You Never is an unknown author.

You Never

• You never said I’m leaving
• You never said goodbye
• You were gone before I knew it,
• And only G-d knew why
• A million times I needed you,
• A million times I cried
• If Love alone could have saved you,
• You never would have died
• In Life I loved you dearly
• In death I love you still
• In my heart you hold a place,
• That no one could ever fill
• It broke my heart to lose you,
• But you didn’t go alone
• For part of me went with you,
• The day G-d took you home.

Father’s Day
Over the years
As we grow old,
We remember our father
So brave and bold.

In the garden,
Leaning on the plow,
He would listen to me;
I see him now.

He would give advice
And understand;
He was always there
To lend a hand.

God made fathers
Strong and firm,
For he knew our lives
Would have great concerns.

So he gave us fathers
To teach us to pray,
And guide our lives,
And show us the way.

So on his day
Let’s take the time
To say “Thanks, dad.
I’m so glad that you were mine.”
Mary Frances Bogle