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Note: Remembrances of Dolores
My Father was the best man I ever knew in my life. Whenever you needed him, he was always
there. When my Mom was sick, he would get me up in the morning, make my breakfast, drive me to
school, go to work, come home & cook dinner, go grocery shopping & do the dishes. This was not
a once in a while thing....it went on for years & years, as my Mom was not well a lot of the time.
My Dad never even complained once....not once.
When I was real small, my Dad started taking me to the movies every Saturday. This was when
they had big theatres with double features and 25-50 cartoons. The place would be jam packed
with screaming kids. This wasn't once in a while, once a month; but, every week, for years. The
movies were mostly Cowboys & Indians. Early on, I was for the underdog & kept asking him why
the Indians never won. He even laughed when I called him "Chief Iron Hand". I came up with that
one because I was always getting in trouble for never hearing my parents call for me while I was
out playing. When I would come to the door, I would always try to slide by him to escape the one
swat that was waiting for me as my little behind passed by.
He taught me how to fish fresh water & salt water; and go crabbing. He taught me to be strong
and that I could take care of myself in any situation.
My Aunt Virginia, his youngest sister, told me that when they were young, they always had to
contribute something to the household and when they were young & didn't work, they both had
to team up and do the dishes. She would wash and my Dad would dry. The funny thing was, on
certain occasions, he would say "I think I hear my friend, Schlicter, calling me....wait a minute."
Out the back door he would go & not come back. She would get stuck doing the drying, too.
When she would get mad about it the next day, he would laugh. What was even funnier, was
that I basically did the same thing to him when I was a teenager. I would run out the back door
sometimes, when I was supposed to dry dishes & stay gone for a couple of hours. I could never
understand why he never said or did anything about it. He must have figured that I came by it
honestly.
I feel his loss more keenly than any other loss in my life....ever.
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