In honor of Father's Day, here is my father as a new father. As mentioned earlier, my father was very withdrawn in his later years and really did not interact with my sister or myself.
But here he is as a young man holding me, an infant, on his shoulders. His usual sack-of-potatoes approach. He's maybe 26 in this picture, my son, also a father, is about the same age. I'm sure he's very proud of his little daughter here even if he can't really figure out what to do with her. His view of himself was as an 'engineer' and not any good at this lovey stuff though he definitely made his decisions based on his own emotions. Did my mother take this picture? Likely in southern California, maybe in Duarte where they lived as an upwardly mobile Jewish couple of the 1950s.
I can't say what the baby is thinking, even though it's me. Pretty funny looking perched on my father's shoulder. I'm sure I was safe but it does look precarious.
My father shared the same name and the same birthdate as a famous beat poet. I always thought I should get them together but they are both gone now.
Today, we are going to take our 6 year old granddaughter Melina for an outing. She likes doing the same thing over and over and, actually we like it too. We will go out and visit the farm animals at Farrell-McWherter Park in Redmond. You can always go out there and see who's new. Last summer, Sapooey, her mom said "I read in the paper that the pig had babies" So I said to my husband "The pig had babies? We have GOT to check that out" So it became a mission. Melina was wondering about the pig babies also. We went out to the farm and, sure enough, there WERE pig babies out there. You never know what you might see.
My son doesn't have any contact with his daughter as far as I know.
2 comments:
Good evaluation that this 26 year sold Dad does not know really what to do with a baby. Probably some conversation about how the baby would stay there and was she safe. I second though . . .these are my thoughts and probably no thought at all was given at age 26. She is in his hands and safe by definition.
The smile is of another time, age and optimism
I am surprised that you survived thia precarious perch, Sandy. I sharing the same name and birthdate with that beat poet...kind of disproves astrology, doesn't it?
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