Through the years, it was difficult to have my Dad in many photos. He didn't like his picture taken for some reason, I never did find out about. He was a good looking man, in my opinion. No second nose or a third eye or anything. Had a great smile. We could tell he really loved Mom too. Just by the way he treated her, actually spoiled her. He would even do the grocery shopping for her...among many things. He put in some pretty long days, as he built his printing business through the years. He always seemed to have time for family picnics though. Even after us kids got our own families and moved out of the house, he would always have a couple family, friends, picnics in his back yard. Always had the yard darts out, and played some volley ball sometimes. When we got older and started playing music, I remember once or twice we even set up our stuff and played some music in the back yard. Dad loved to take family and friends out to dinner or a lunch if time allowed. David Fongs was his favorite eatery for many years. He ate there so often, Mom and Dad became personal friends with the staff there! Dad was a quiet and almost shy man, but when he got to know a person, he was a loyal and trusted friend. It was in his later years, that Dad loosened up some to allow his picture (front on, not just from the back of his head) taken.
Mom was the outgoing one of the family. Quick with a smile and a laugh. I remember her telling everyone that laughed at my jokes to "Stop encouraging him!" Some of my jokes were perhaps not as funny as I thought they were or something....never did figure it out. Maybe if you ask my wife Pat, she may have an answer to that. Our Mom was a mother when mothers stayed home and took care of the house, raised the kids, made their lunches, cleaned the house (whether or not it needed cleaning), did the laundry (wringer washer, solar dryer), bandaged the bumps and bruises and scrapes us kids got, and kissed the ouwee's to make them better. She was always the one to discipline us. There was always the threat of "Wait until your Father gets home!" That usually worked, so it wasn't necessary to bring him into the "character moulding process" very often. She explained how to be courteous and kind to your friends, and when we got older, which side of the girl you were to walk on as you walked down the street/sidewalk. It was important stuff to learn!
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| This is me, Mom, Dad, brother Guy. Not shown in this picture is sister Suzanne or brother Gregg. (Don't know who the photographer was, but they couldn't center the shot!) |
Dad worked very hard and his normal day was pretty long, as he built his printing business. When I was in Jr. High School, I picked metal shop and print shop as my shop classes. Then I was approved to go downtown to Vocational High School and Technical Institute to major in printing. In my senior year, we got to go on the work program if our grades were good enough. I was assigned to the United Fund in-house print shop. Flo ran the little shop of two. . .her and whoever her school printing student was for that year. It was an interesting place, which I really enjoyed. Running a small offset press, plastic plates, and usually something on 8 1/2" X 11" paper. Once in a while we ran two color letterhead paper and the black and the red parts were pretty close together, so it had to be setup just right. It was fun. I also worked some for my Dad while in school too. After school I went on Active Duty Navy for what turned out to be 2 1/2 years and came home with a wife and a new baby boy (David) and went right to work at Dad's shop. He taught me how to produce a quality printed piece whether it was a black and white form, or multi colored brochure. IF it wasn't right, good quality, and consistent, I would do it over. When that happened, I learned REAL fast, what a quality, good looking printed product looked like! It was tough, but I am so glad he took the time and taught me how to be a craftsman. His shop at that time had my older sister, Suzanne, who ran the office, my two brothers who worked in the back shop, my Uncle (Dad's older brother) my wife Pat who worked the front office, and me, who after a while took some sales training, and became the salesman and also worked production when needed (which got to be the more I sold, the more I worked in the shop later in the day) But it was all fun. Our family life was a pretty closed circuit. It was after I moved away for a bit to Las Vegas, then back on Active Navy duty to Vietnam, and moved back to Minneapolis, that I really valued the security of FAMILY. When so many of our men came back home from Vietnam and got abused on their arrival, I experienced none to that. When the ship came in, Pat and the other wives were on the pier waiting for our ship. We drove off the base and basically drove back to Minneapolis and my family, where our new civilian lives were inside the family web of security. It remained that way for quite some time.
More family time stories later. Enough of this for now. Point of this story, and most likely the next time I 'talk' about it, is this: Family is the "ULTIMATE IMPORTANT". If I had my life to do over, there would be only two things I would do different. I regret not having done them, but at the time I didn't see correctly, and would have done differently, if I could go back in time and redo. Do not ever think Family is there just for you. Family is there for everyone's participation and support of each other. Do your part.
More later, so until then,
Keep singing, keep Laughing, keep smiling
Blessings,
Gary
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