"Oh, Mister Mister Johnny Rebek
how could you be so mean?
I told you you'd be sorry for inventing that machine.
Now all the neighbor's cats and dogs will
nevermore be seen -
They'll all be ground to sausages in
Johnny Rebek's machine."
That was the chorus from just one of the songs my dad would often sing while driving, camping, or whenever.
There were a few others - I don't really know if these are the titles or just the first lines:
"The Bear Went Over the Mountain"
"The Dummy Line"
"Two Little Fishes" (who "swam and swam all over the dam")
"Beautiful, Beautiful Texas"
"Abilene, Oh Abilene"
"We're All Goin' Down to Santa Fe Town"
"I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts"
And, believe it or not, more than once I remember him singing "We're Off to See the Wizard"
My Dad and I had many categories of buddyship:
Bear-Huntin' Buddy
Priesthood Buddy
Swimming Buddy
Camping Buddy
et al
"Bear-Hunting Buddy" was more of a fanciful yarn he often spun than a label for an activity in which we often engaged. It was quite an entertaining tale. The plan as he described it was to get ourselves outfitted and go up into "the mountains" with some "friendly Indians" as guides. I remember being highly excited, fascinated, and maybe a little frightened at the thought of traveling with Indians, friendly though they be. I kept thinking of those mesmerising, stoic portaits of Geronimo. We never did go bear hunting, or so I thought. Dad later pointed out that we had actually hunted bear on the previous outing to Malouf Lake. Yes, we had been, in fact, walking the shores and hills with our 22s. We just hadn't actually seen or killed a bear. I'd have to say that that was when I first learned about loopholes.
Dad and Humor:
Ask me sometime about Ernie Dawson's "trick knee," or Mom about "Binckley."
Dad would often rib me about the Star Wars movies and characters.
"What's that Star Wars movie called - The Lost Ark Fights Back?"
He used to teasingly call R2-D2 "WD40," and referred to Yoda as "Yuck."
Another thing he used to tell me was that on the old Batman tv series, the character of Robin was played by a girl.
"No he's NOOOOOOT!" was my counter-argument. I didn't have a problem with girl tv characters - I found Batgirl to be quite fetching. Messing with Robin was more than I could handle, though.
Sometime in the 80's I began to wonder how long my Dad would be around. It was several years later, however, before I'd be confronted directly with the concept of Dad's mortality. It was when we went to meet Mom and Dad at the airport upon their homecoming from Panama. Dad was not doing well.
His moment of passing was as peaceful as could be. The thing which I had wondered and worried about back in the 80's had come and gone. But, the really hard thing had been seeing him in the state he was in at the airport back in '97, and the feeling that he had at that moment begun to leave us.
Dad and Mom spent his last few years shuttling back and forth between Texas and AZ.
During their visits here, despite failing health and being unable to partake of many of the simple pleasures which he had once enjoyed, there were times when the old self would re-surface. I remember one day He and Mom and I drove over to Trader Joe's - a market in Tempe which has lots of interesting, unusual foods. We each made one or two selections and then on the way home we enjoyed ourselves sampling them and commenting on them.
Summer of '2001 Mom, Dad and I went to the Cedar City Shakespeare festival. We saw several productions including one of Dad's favorites - "Pirates of Penzance." Dad laughed and cheered at General Stanley, The Pirate King, and a surprise cameo by Queen Victoria herself. On another AZ visit we (again Mom, Dad and I) went to the movies and saw "O' Brother, Where Art Thou." Dad really got a kick out of it. He was particularly tickled by the character "Delmar," and chuckled all the way home.
Whenever I think of Dad in the Spirit World - I envision him with Mama & Daddy T, Bessie & Art, Jessie & Gack, Sadie & Odie, Bud, Babe, Granny & Gramps, Eblen Malouf, Ted, and every dog he ever knew.
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