Vintage Dad #3

 Vintage Dad #3

Riding with Dad in the Pauldine’s Dumptruck

Taking the trash to the dump and throwing it into the deep pit

Getting an under-doggie at Breitbeck Park when we were little squirts

Playing basketball on our cement slab against the red barn

Talking sports on the phone while mom was bored senseless

Watching him battle liver failure with unspeakable pain at Syracuse Veteran’s hospital

Seeing him come out of the transplant in Pittsburg with tears running down his face.

Traveling down to Florida and going to Disney for a day

Seeing him give the tithe check each week when we didn’t have money for our own bills.

Watching him pray and then hand out communion with the other deacons on Sunday Nights

Sitting in our room and talking about why we couldn’t watch rated “R” movies

Taking him out to Denny’s to talk about struggles with lust

Sitting on his shoulders when I was a little boy.

Listening to him hoot and holler as Tim and I wrestled in the living room.

Watching him help Gloria pack our garden vegetables into her car that we caught her stealing

Going to the Penn Can Mall when we were younger and riding the escalators up and down

Swimming at our grandparents cottage and fishing off the end of the dock

Sitting on his lap and helping drive the tractors at my Grandpa Holdridge’s where he grew up.

Going to animal auctions in the Catskills and listening to the auctioneer speed talk

Watching him give my mom a hug from behind in the kitchen

Listening to him teach at Southwest in chapel on Wednesdays.

Seeing him play a saxophone with his father and siblings at reunions

Hearing his voice escalate when he and my mom would get into spats. 

Eve’s dropping on conversations of conflicts in the Christian School that were weighing on him.

The way he and mom would poke fun at each other, sometimes crossing the line

The visits he made to BBC to watch Tim and I play soccer.

Getting a card from Mom and Dad in the mail with his handwriting as he shared his pride in us.

Listening in on him bragging about me to others without him knowing I was there.

Long talks on the phone long distance catching up on the goings on in each other’s lives

Knowing that he was mopping floors for Ontario Orchards when he was unemployed

Taking in his stories about people when he drove for Uber the last several years

Watching my kids listen to him tell the same stories and jokes he used to tell me

Being with him as he lost his mom and dad and drinking in the stories of their effect on others 

Witnessing him doing things he wasn’t confident in, especially becoming the pastor in Fulton

The way he became a father to so many who didn’t have good relationships with their dads

The rounds we would make taking everyone home after basketball practice.

The phone call when he confessed his struggle with pornography.  The tears.  The apology.

Being in grandpa’s truck when John Denver came on the radio and seeing him smirk.

Taking in his stories about his childhood on the farm.  So many good stories.

Listening to him talk about the night he met mom and they started dating.

Parking the car far away and walking to the lake to watch the Gucci Brothers fireworks

Him effortlessly rattling off useless trivia facts