Remembering

When Dad died, I wrote lots of little phrases in a notebook of stories and times that I wanted to remember.  I just found that notebook again.  Some of the things I've already blogged about, but I figured I'd just put everything up here all at once.

• the cars he had
• his love of vacations
• how he couldn't resist getting toys for his grandkids, especially if they played music
• LKK & GPJ (license plates from our cars.  We said them like they were the names of the cars.  Mom remembered the second one because it was the first initials of her brothers.)
• going to the Fatima Shrine
• visiting mints and federal reserve banks
• trips to D.C.
• visiting Fr. Kissel in Atlanta
• many family vacations in Salt Fork -- the holes in the screened-in porches, dealing with gophers, bats & skunks, Dad always bringing his golf clubs
• ducking down in the car so that hotel staff wouldn't see how many kids we had in the car (and sneaking up to the room with our sleeping bags after we got the key)
• how he waved (bending his hand at the wrist)
• his warm blue eyes
• going to get pizza with him after the regional spelling bee
• many trips to Chuck E. Cheese's, where he show off his mad Skee Ball skills
• going to Indians games, sitting in the nosebleed seats, getting there in time for the free giveaways (we had a lot of wooden baseball bats from the games), thinking we were special whenever we got to sit in the loge seats
• Dad's version of "roughing it" -- the cabins at state parks.  I didn't go tent camping until college.
• going to see MSU, learning the fight song and getting Sparky's autograph
• visiting Coshocton -- the Mosser glass factory and the canal boat ride pulled by horses
• shoveling the driveway with him
• working the concession stand at Bingo.  We used to pretend that everything outside the windows of the concession stand was a movie.  We also loved to make "mixed drinks" (adding all the flavors of pop together).
• working Saturday rentals at Chanel.  Mark & I would work the coat check for weddings, reverse raffles and reunions.  (I'm still not sure why they chose a pink linoleum for the floors of their cafeteria.)
• using the copy machine to copy a leaf in Dad's office.  The leaf was from a plant his secretary owned and Dad made me apologize to her.  He was pretty mad.
• getting excited about having enough money to buy Chanel sweatshirts in the bookstore.
• building the clubhouse behind our house.  Dad & Grandpa Szczepanik worked on it together & I would take my wagon down to the new houses and pick up pieces of scrap wood to use for the pathway.
• seeing people that knew Dad in Florida.  We always felt like he was so famous.  He was good at keeping in touch with old alumni from the high school.
• having season passes to Sea World.  I think we had all the shows memorized, but we still loved to go.  We were impressed whenever we noticed them changing their scripts up a bit as they acted.  We also thought the laser show at the end of the night was one of the best things ever.
• sparklers and Morning Glories on summer holiday nights.  Dad loved sparklers.
• softball -- both watching him play (which I remember only vaguely) and having him help me learn how to play.  He was always willing to play a game of catch with me.
• having him be a fan at my softball and volleyball games.
• seeing how he took care of everybody.
• going on shopping trips with Grandma Szczepanik and Auntie Sally every week.
• heading to Pennsylvania every year before the school year started just to buy shoes at the outlet store.
• back-to-school shopping in general.  That man loved his notebook paper.
• trips to Sams Club.
• getting letters in college that he typed
• laughing because he could fall asleep anywhere
• going on college tours with him
• trips to Put-in-Bay
• choosing a fresh cut Christmas tree every year that we cut ourselves
• seeing him clean the chandeliers as a priority before every party
• looking through the Oriental Trading Company catalog, wondering what he would order for giveaways for Bingo or prizes for the Carnival
• the wind-up alarm clock he always used
• his love of Easter lamb cakes
• sharing a love of musicals
• looking through his Advertising Age magazines or watching TV shows about commercials
• lots of fruit in the house, especially bananas
• the old-fashioned washer/dryer at grandma's house
• grandma's attic and all the old toys that used to belong to Dad and his brothers
• the Beethoven's 2nd movie about the slobbery dogs
• his bumblebee shirts
• golfing, bowling and playing putt-putt
• lilies at Easter
• flowers for Mother's Day
• poinsettias for Christmas
• reseeding the lawn at Grandma & Auntie Sally's houses
• the Gameshow Network
• Wheel of Fortune
• The Price Is Right
• family portraits at Olan Mills
• having him help us be big sellers during the magazine drives
• trips to Marc's
• haggling in Mexico
• "It doesn't hurt to ask."
• his voice when he answered the phone
• driving along the freeway, looking for our missing hubcap
• whitewall tires
• the fake ferns that we put out to make the cafeteria look nicer during rentals.  We had to put the fronds in and take them out every time.  (Fake plants have progressed a lot since then.  I wonder if they even sell plants that have separate fronds anymore.)
• the Christmas store on the Virginia Beach Boardwalk
• the t-shirt store in Virginia Beach that would iron your design onto whatever color shirt you chose.

That's all of the ones I wrote down.  I reserve the right to tell the stories again and again.  Some of them are my favorite ones to tell.  :)