The picture below is me at the New Jersey shore in the summer of 1966. It hints at the childhood I wrote about in this story: Thought for the Day: America, 1963 , but tonight the picture draws out a different line of thought.
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The photo was taken by my mother, I know this because my father was 8,900 miles away in Saigon that year.
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In a number of fathers day stories, I have said that without my father, my life would have amounted to very little. I am speaking personally here, I know a number of people who grew up without a father and became far better people than myself, but I am not them, and I have to say that nearly every good thing that happened in my life in the last 50 years bears the fingerprints of my fathers influence. I have never known a world without him, but it takes little imagination to see it would have been a much dimmer world with very few chances, and journey without a guide nor compass. That is what I think about when I study the face of the little boy that 50 years later becomes the person typing this.
William, my father and best friend left this earth 5 years ago, he also was a man of principle and honesty. It’s amazing how we can think back at the things our Father taught us and remember them, I guess that’s why they are called life lessons. Some say that time will make the passing of a loved one easier, however I find this not to be true as I sit and ponder on the what ifs why nots of yesterday. Maybe it just hasn’t been enough time. You just keep the stories coming as I do enjoy them, they remind me of mine and I’m not that good at putting them to print. Thinking of you buddy, Dan-o
William, my father and best friend left this earth 5 years ago, he also was a man of principle and honesty. It’s amazing how we can think back at the things our Father taught us and remember them, I guess that’s why they are called life lessons. Some say that time will make the passing of a loved one easier, however I find this not to be true as I sit and ponder on the what ifs why nots of yesterday. Maybe it just hasn’t been enough time. You just keep the stories coming as I do enjoy them, they remind me of mine and I’m not that good at putting them to print. Thinking of you buddy, Dan-o