Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Dedicated to Dad, 1904-1981

Dad—Arizona

I never dedicated anything to my dad, so I guess this will have to do. He passed away in 1981. Up till then he put on a hat every time he stepped outside. He only had three hats that I remember, but they were important to him.

Way back before the Depression, he worked for the Rock Island Railroad. It broke his heart when he was laid off. He couldn’t get railroading out of his blood so he wore this engineer’s hat whenever he was tinkering around in the backyard. And he tinkered a lot.

When he went to town, or any place casual, he donned his Panama hat similar to this one. Any time he entered a building, he removed it. And any time he walked past a lady, he tipped it.

Dad was an Immigration officer for 37 years, so he wore a government issue “saucer” hat at work.

He lived his whole life in the Midwest and the West, but never wore a cowboy hat. I loved him anyway.

3 comments:

J said...

Well, your dad appears to have been a very handsome man. And he raised a son to be a good man.

BreadBox said...

Paul,
What a lovely idea for a tribute!
And thanks for stopping by the breadbox yesterday!
N.

Momomi09 said...

Au contraire, mon frere. I have Dad's cowboy hat on the wall on my back porch. It's indoors, no harm to the hat. You need to come visit it.

Love, your little sister