Today is my father's birthday.
He would have been 106 today if he had made it. But he didn't.
The odds were against him. And anyway he smoked. Cigarettes killed him at age 79.
My dad fell in love with my mother at first sight. Don't do that. It seldom ends well. But they stuck it out until my mom died at age 69. Happiness is different things to different people. Maybe they were happy together. They certainly didn't seem to be.
My dad was a Marine. He fought for his country in the Pacific in World War Two. His wife cared for their baby boy (my older brother) all by herself in San Diego at age 17 while he was gone.
My parents were tough.
While he was in the Marines his friends got their deferments and stayed on their parents' farm, built up their lives, and did pretty well. Dad was off fighting fascists and lost his youth. By the time he came home he was a decade behind everyone else he had grown up with and he never caught up.
He sometimes remarked on it but he never complained.
My dad lost friends and fellow Marines in the war. He hated the Japanese to the day he died. I never blamed him. But let the dead bury their dead.
My dad was scarred by the war. Not physically but from then on he was quiet and stayed to himself. He bought a farm to get away from the world. No money in farming, though. So my brother and sister and I grew up poor. I don't recall ever feeling a lack, though. My parents did the best they could for us and I never felt poor, if that makes sense.
My dad failed me in some ways, helped me in others. He was human with his own problems and challenges. I could have done worse in the father sweepstakes, and many did. He never spanked us or hit us, seldom even disciplined us. If we went to him with some scheme he always told us it was our decision. I guess you could say he treated us with respect.
I honestly think Dad liked his kids. He always took us everywhere. Out to eat in the evenings with Mom, on Sunday drives, on vacation every year. I think he liked having us around. Not everybody can say that about their dads.
Dad was pro-union and a Democrat. He always treated everyone well and everyone liked him. He was a cynic and a skeptic, as were many of the people of his generation, but he would listen and was as openminded as you could expect with that attitude. He hated Nixon and Reagan. And the Vietnam war.
I believe he would have hated Trump.
Today was his birthday. If he were here would take him out to dinner to celebrate.
I miss him.
Happy birthday Dad.