Today is the anniversary of my dad’s passing. He died almost 20 years ago…yet it doesn’t feel that way…I still remember him very vividly…funny the things I remember about him. I’m more like my mom than like my dad…I think my sister has more of a personality like my dad. Isn’t that always the way…one child takes after one of their parents more than the other? I think that is true of my kids too…my son is definitely more like my husband was when he was alive…and my daughter is definitely a Type A like me.

I was thinking about my dad this morning…Sunday morning…as I drank my tea and ate my bowl of cereal. My dad really wasn’t a tea drinker…he was more of a coffee drinker. He used to get up very early in the morning…eat his breakfast and walk to the subway to catch the train to work in the city. He was a mailman…always delivering the mail…and sometimes when he had extra magazines that were undeliverable he would bring them home to me and my sister…guess that’s why I still like to read so many magazines.

My dad would take naps when he came home from work…right before dinner…but you could always find him in ‘his blue chair’ after dinner…reading The New York Post…yes…his blue chair with the blue ottoman was where my dad would park himself after dinner and relax until bedtime…which was usually around 10:00 pm.

Sometimes, we would watch television together…I didn’t have a television in my bedroom like I do now…there was no VCR…or DVD player in those days…and there weren’t hundreds of channels to flip through either. At first, we didn’t even have a remote (can you imagine…how did we live when we had to get up and walk over to the television each time we wanted to change the channel…oh my…I don’t know if my kids would have survived like I did).

I loved to watch shows with my dad…we would watch The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday evenings…and we used to watch The Sunny and Cher Show together too…my dad would always comment on Sunny’s outfits and long hair. Then there was The Tom Jones Show…yes…we would watch Tom Jones sing and dance around the stage and throw his wet handkerchief into the screaming crowd of women. There was also The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason… and I Love Lucy…oh, how we enjoyed these shows…and we laughed a lot…yes…my dad and I laughed a lot together.

When he wasn’t in his mailman’s uniform, my dad was a pretty good dresser. He was very proud of the sports jackets and pants that the tailor would sew for him…and he always looked pretty spiffy when he went out with my mom…they were a spiffy couple…my mom had a bouffant hairdo and my dad was the Aqua Velva man.

I loved to play penny ball with my dad…we would put a penny on the ground and each of us would stand about 3 feet away from it on either side…then we would throw the Spaulding and try to hit the penny…the first person to reach 10 hits was the winner…sometimes we counted to 20…what fun we had.

My dad had a good sense of humor…glad he passed that personality trait onto me…when the going gets tough…I often think of my dear dad…wonder if he were alive today…what would he think of the lives we live…how much busier they are…how fast paced they are…but there are still mailmen like my dear dad who deliver our mail…and there’s still time for penny ball…think I’ll have to go buy myself a Spaulding…wonder if my kids will play penny ball with me now that the weather is warming up?

Judi