I'm headed down to North Carolina in a few hours, working from Raleigh this coming week. We're also finally having a memorial service for my father, who passed away last fall, now that a few key family members (especially Mom!) are healthy enough to attend.
Dad made me promise him that we wouldn't have a funeral, and we didn't. The old man hated funerals all his life, and was determined to skip out on his own.
But I told him at the time that we would at some point have a memorial service, and since that was for us and not for him, he didn't have much say over that. :-)
He was perfectly happy with this formulation.
Posting may be light over the next day or two. For today, I'm going to just link you to a couple of posts in remembrance of Robert E. Campbell, the man I wish I was visiting in person today.
Robert E. Campbell (1936-2005)
Fathers and sons are complicated business.
I said much of what I've probably got in me to say about my father on this blog last year, so perhaps you'll forgive me if I borrow the words from a Steve Goodman song I've always loved.
My Old Man
Steve Goodman
I miss my old man tonite
and I wish he was here with me
With his corny jokes and his cheap cigars
He could look you in the eye and sell you a car.
That's not an easy thing to do,
but no one ever knew a more charming creature
on this earth than my old man.
He was a pilot in the big war in the U.S. Army Air Corps
in a C - 47 with a heavy load
full of combat cargo for the Burma Road.
And after they dropped the bomb
he came home and married Mom
and not long after that
he was my old man.
And oh the fights we had
when my brother and I got him mad;
He'd get all boiled up and he'd start to shout
and I knew what was coming so I tuned him out.
And now the old man's gone, and I'd give all I own
to hear what he said when I wasn't listening
to my old man
I miss my old man tonite
and I can almost see his face
He was always trying to watch his weight
and his heart only made it to fifty-eight.
For the first time since he died
late last night I cried.
I wondered when I was gonna do that
for my old man.
No comments:
Post a Comment