Sunday, June 16, 2013

Just Call Me Alex

The kids in my family called my father Daddy but he didn't like it at all.  By the time there were six of us he was hearing Daddy way more than he could stomach.  This went on for some while as perhaps he thought it would be too harsh to do anything about it but eventually he was through with it.  He gathered all of us around and said, "My name is Alex and your mother's name is Anne.  From now on you will call us by our real names instead of Daddy or Mummy."

So, Happy Father's Day to Alex!

Also, Happy Father's Day to Lotho who may well have learned the most from him.


Note:  none of my brothers and sisters have taken up this practice so I guess they didn't like it but I thought it was pretty cool!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I learned very little as a father from him. I did admire his passion for knowledge. He tried very hard to be a great father but his passion for knowledge always got inthe way.
My fondest memories of him always revolved around go-karts. The only place that I really believed he respected anything I did. I do.admit that I never did anything intellectually to even.comeclose to deserving his respect.
He should have been.proud of my joint rolling skills. I do believe I could roll a single paper on a motorcycle andit look great.

Unknown said...

Geez, I had the reply all together and Internet croaked again. Grrr....

Unknown said...

None of us felt we could touch him intellectually and that was probably his worst lesson (laughs).

He did give us a great love of music even if we resisted mightily what he was trying to show us. It couldn't help but have an effect. Even so, I believe the need to play came from Anne as I will never forget her singing in Australia while she was cooking.

Anonymous said...

I did learn my knowledge of handling money from him. I never did understand how someone as smart as he was that could not understand how to run a family budget. But would run the budget for the computer centerand the bio sci dept with ease

Unknown said...

Sometimes the lesson was to do it the opposite from how he did it!

Laughing Gecko said...

He would have been proud of your rolling abilities. He was also proud of the fine, overachieving friends you surrounded yourself with. I do think he instilled an appreciation for being creative in his children. The whole family was one of the most interesting I'd ever met.

Unknown said...

He wasn't even faintly impressed by corporate achievement - lol

You know very well what got his attention and that was the chess boards on the front path! (laughs)

I've wondered if that was something he taught us or if we were cursed by some gene that drives one to make stuff as all of us do it. Just got to be making something!

Laughing Gecko said...

I remember playing chess with Alex. Our first game I think I surprised and riled him by rolling him off the board. He grumpily demanded a rematch in which I underestimated him and allowed him to have the upper hand. I figured we'd have a deciding third game and rubber match to settle things so I was prepared to take off the gloves, the old man was going down. He suddenly jumped up and wouldn't play me another game, ever. I always felt we had some unfinished business on the board. Hey Alex, you owe me another game in the next life!

Unknown said...

Well, yes, you do have some unfinished business and see him in the next world, don't be late!

Those chess tournaments out front of the house were extremely cool with you and Mike McClure as the Chess Kings. Fascinating how phases like that roll through life and you can't keep them going indefinitely but it's cool that they ever existed at all.