Father’s Day!

Greetings everyone – and a Happy Father’s Day to all the good Dads out there.  🙂

I cannot help by remember my own father on this special day.  He has been gone for many years, but his memory and spirit are with me always.  He is the reason for many things in my life:  My ability to cook like a professional chef (he was one, I am not!), my sense of humor, my work ethic, the way I treat people, and so much more.

Even though my Dad never met a bottle of Chivas Regal that he didn’t like, he never sacrificed his family for a drink.  He was a hard working, hard drinking, hard playing man – an old salty dog from the Navy and a straight shooter.  He didn’t believe in lying, even though there were times would that would have been easier.   He believed in treating his employees with fairness and dignity even though most of them were Black at a time in the South where most Black employees weren’t treated well at all.   He took being called by racist names from his friends with aplomb and pragmatism simply saying they were "ignorant" and leaving it at that. 

My Dad drove me and my friends anywhere we wanted to go; picking up a gang of pre-teen and then teen girls and putting us in his van and dropping us off at the mall, the lake, and anywhere else we wanted to go.  I almost regretted learning to drive because then Daddy didn’t need to take us anywhere anymore!

He played poker with Mafia guys and I sat on his knee while he did it!  I ran into one of those fellas a couple of years ago in New Orleans.  He was just as old as he could be, but he still remembered me and my father!

My Dad was, by his own admission, far from perfect as a man, but he was absolutely perfect as a father.  Thank you, Daddy!!!

So blessings out there to all the Good Dads!

Love, Mambo Sam