Friday, March 22, 2019

Friday Night Reveries



My dad worked all the time it seemed like to me I know because a lot of the time I was working with him as much as a little kid can do that kind of stuff. So, my dad was always working at the shop where he is a sheet-metal worker which I guess is the term used for people who work on furnaces and air-conditioning systems. My dad and mom never really went out together on their own. Not that I was aware of much. All we went out as a group and family days like Mother's Day, but that was about it. My dad didn't watch football or baseball or basketball. If he had enough time to sit down to watch televised sports it be asleep. And we would never spend money to go out to a function like that is a family. Of course, being Mormon we tended to affiliate with various word functions. I guess the it's like if you're active in the Mormon church your expected to attend these kinds of things. Actually, as he got older I guess dad and mom would attend high priest functions which are social functions for the specific level of religious attainment. These functions are most likely dinners and other type social functions wrapped up with Mormon trappings.

However, my dad had acquaintances which I can comfortably identify is friends, many friends with quotation marks but still he would go out of his way and periodically spend an hour two sometimes even longer just talking is old guys do. I've already written about Ivan D., Who is one of the fellows my father worked with at the shop. There is also an old guy (my dad's age) named Mr. Saxton. My dad was Mr. Saxton's home teacher so time spent with Mr. Saxton could be counted as religious time but when they got together they talked more than religious stuff. They talked genuine friendship stuff and sometimes going on for hours to the point where mom could get a bit upset. Usually, if they had whether visitation sessions would be on a Sunday afternoon. One of my dad's friends that I thought was the most interesting of all I knew was a guy named Shorty Longenecker I am not sure that spelling is all but it was something like that. Shorty was an old guy who lived in the trailer just off Apple Street in Boise Idaho. I don't even know why but I remember one time going with my dad and brother, Ross and we actually went into Shortys trailer. This had been around 1958 or 59 long before the advent of man caves but s Shorty's trailer was definitely such a place. The place is a mess it seems like in my memory all I can remember was an oversized cigar on some sort of trophy case over his table. In fact the whole trailer smelled of cigar smoke. We hung out for about an hour and I don't remember what they talked about but there's a lot of talk, old guy talk about the old days and do you remember when type of stuff. I'm sure Ross and I were bored out of our minds but I think my dad was fulfilled when the few times I can really remember him being happy.

I'm not sure what I'm thinking about my dad tonight I must left the door open and he just snuck in…


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