Memorial Day 2012

This is my Dad.  He was a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars.  He served in the Navy as a nuclear reactor maintenance specialist for 20 years and retired in 1980.  He died 17 years ago and is buried at Fort Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in the rolling hills of central Pennsylvania.

He ended up working for a power company but in an ironic twist, forbid airconditioning in his houses, insulated the hell out of every window, was a tyrant about running the dryer for a single pair of wet jeans and instructed everyone on how to take a proper navy shower. The thermostat was kept so low that we got dressed for school under the covers.  When it came to conserving energy, he was way ahead of his time and annoying as all get out.  I have rebelled.  Sometimes, my showers last more than three minutes, the water is set to hot and I let it run continuously during the shampoo cycle.

He was born in the middle of the Depression and probably never thought we’d be stupid enough to get ourselves into another one.  He probably never thought the religious right would get as much control as it did because up close, it just looks too crazy to be powerful.  He used to joke that we should save our Dixie cups because the south was going to rise again.  But he probably never expected we’d have to fight the Civil War all over again. He probably never expected that the first person in the family on either side to have graduated from college would be out of a job.  He wasn’t particularly political.  The only time I remember him voting was for John Anderson, an independent.  I’m not sure where he would have fallen on the political spectrum today but I seriously doubt he would have been suckered in by *anything* on Fox News.  He wasn’t the gullible type.  Knowing his views on energy, I think he’d be in a no man’s land, but *maybe* skewing towards the Green technology side of things.  I think that would have been interesting to him.  I don’t think he would have been into raiding other countries for oil because that means we’d end up paying money for energy, which went against his nature. He probably would have believed in global warming. There are a lot of things he wouldn’t be pleased to see if he were here and sometimes, he had a temper.

Yep, if he were here today, I think he’d be pretty pissed.

I kinda miss that about him.

Have a great day, people.  It’s nice outside.  Go out and get a sunburn.

It’s not summer yet but this is the start of the summer vacation season.  So, here’s my favoritist summer song in the whole world.  I love the lyrics.

The summer smiles
The summer knows
And unashamed
She sheds her clothes
The summer smoothes
The restless sky
And lovingly
She warms the sand
On which you lie
The summer knows
The summer’s wise
She sees the doubts
Within your eyes
And so she takes
Her summertime
Tells the moon to wait
And the sun to linger
Twist the world
Round her summer finger
Lets you see
The wonder of it all
And if you’ve learned
Your lesson well
There’s little more
For her to tell
One last caress
It’s time to dress
For fall…