FOR FATHER'S DAY...

MY DAD, ROBERT I. "BOB" DEZEN

MY EARLIEST MEMORY OF MY DAD IS OF ME IN MY CRIB.

MY DAD PLAYING WITH MY TOES- "THIS LITTLE PIGGY WENT TO MARKET, THIS LITTLE PIGGY STAYED HOME......."

I REMEMBER A DARK, SCARY NIGHT, WHEN I WAS A LITTLE KID.

IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I EVER WAS SCARED OF THE DARK.

I CRIED OUT INTO THE DARKNESS, HOPING MY DAD WOULD SOMEHOW HEAR ME.

AFTER MUCH CRYING AND HOPING, HE FINALLY DID.

HE CAME IN TO COMFORT ME AND ASSUAGE MY FEAR.

AND AT THAT MOMENT, MY DAD WAS JOHN WAYNE TO ME.

EVERY NIGHT WHEN MY DAD CAME HOME FROM WORK, I WOULD RUN UP AND JUMP INTO HIS ARMS, JUST LIKE MY OTHER HERO, GEORGE REEVES, DID ON THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN.

AND DAD WOULD CATCH ME IN HIS STRONG ARMS, NEVER ONCE DROPPING ME.

AND I REMEMBER SITTING ON MY DAD'S LAP EVERY SUNDAY MORNING, AS HE READ US THE FUNNIES FROM THE COMICS SECTION OF THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER.

AND DAD BUYING ME MY FIRST DOG FOR MY BIRTHDAY.

I NAMED HIM "MOE" BECAUSE I LOVED THE THREE STOOGES.

AND DAD AND MOE WERE BOTH MY PALS.

AND THOSE GLORIOUS SUMMERS IN ATLANTIC CITY.

THE SMELL OF THE OCEAN AS WE ARRIVED AND RUNNING OUT TO PLAY ON THE BEACH AND LAUGHING AND FROLICKING AS THE WAVES SPLASHED ALL AROUND US.

AND OUR CUSTOM ON THE BEACH EVERY YEAR: DAD LETTING US (ME AND MY BROTHER AND MY SISTER) BURY HIM IN THE SAND.

AND ONE DAY I REMEMBER I WAS SITTING AT PEOPLE'S DRUG STORE, EATING MY DINNER.

IT WAS A MONDAY NIGHT.

AND A BLACK MAN SAT DOWN BESIDE ME, AND I WAS TERRIFIED, BECAUSE I'D NEVER SEEN A BLACK MAN BEFORE,

SCARED AND CONFUSED, I LEFT MY SEAT AND SCURRIED DOWN, SEVERAL SEATS AWAY, TO WHERE IT WAS "SAFE".

AND DAD SAW THIS, AND HE CAME OVER TO ME, AND HE ASKED ME, "DID YOU RUN AWAY BECAUSE THAT MAN WAS BLACK?"

"NO", I SHOOK MY HEAD AND LIED, FOR EVEN AT THAT YOUNG AGE I KNEW I HAD DONE SOMETHING WRONG.

AND DAD TOLD ME IT WAS WRONG TO BE SCARED BECAUSE THE MAN HAD BLACK SKIN.

AND DAD MADE ME GO BACK TO MY ORIGINAL SEAT AND EAT MY DINNER THERE.

AND I WILL NEVER FORGET THE HURT LOOK ON THAT BLACK MAN'S FACE WHEN I RETURNED AND SAT DOWN BESIDE HIM.

AND I REALIZE NOW THAT MY DAD HAD AT THAT MOMENT TAUGHT ME MY FIRST LESSON IN LIFE, A LESSON ABOUT DECENCY AND HUMAN DIGNITY.

IT WAS A LESSON I NEVER FORGOT.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing this :)

[Michele]

Lovely story of your dad -How wonderful to have had such a caring parent!