Sometime last November, one of my dad’s friends came by to see him, unannounced and unfortunately, my dad was in the hospital, so they didn’t get to see each other. His friend left 6 or 7 pictures of them – all black and whites, from when they were late teenagers into early adulthood. Here were these pictures that showed a side of my dad that I’ve never seen before. He was goofing off with his friends. The pictures are from the 50’s – and really, they are wonderful.
After my returned home, I thought about the pictures, but we had so much goin on, I didn’t mention them. I wanted to know about one picture, where he and his friends appear to be on a boardwalk. They are all wearing newsboy hats and dressed nice – but you can tell they were up to something – it’s just that look that is in all of their eye’s, especially my dad’s eye. I wanted to know the story behind that picture.
But I let life get in the way – too busy getting ready for Christmas and didn’t ask him. Then, he had a stroke on his birthday, December 24th and subsequently died on January 3, of this year.
I’ll never know what was behind the picture. I have no way to contact the man that left the pictures – as none of us really knew him that well. I’m left, though, with that smile and glint of mischief is his eyes – something that always meant we were in for something fun.
I won’t wait to ask those questions, anymore.