Memories from Stephen
The first memories I have of my father were the multiple trips he took to bring my sisters and I to the playgrounds around our apartment in Bay-ridge Brooklyn. Shore Road park and Cannonball park were our favorites. I didn’t know it at the time, but Cannonball park was actually called John Paul Jones Park. But I’m never going to remember that because of the Cannon.
Fort Hamilton cannon and Dover Patrol Monument were amazing playgrounds. Dad used to place us inside the cannon and we used to climb on the cannonballs around it. He used to put us on the ledge of the monument and let us scoot around it. Interestingly there was a cross-cut section of the suspension cables for the Verrazzano Bridge which he would take me to and teach me about structural engineering. He showed me how to see the Verrazzano from our bedroom window if you opened the window and stuck your head out.
Shore Road park was another interesting one. My father taught me many lessons there. My favorite was when he bought me my first baseball mitt and ball and we played there for hours. It was my birthday the next day but he had to travel for work so we celebrated that day. Another lesson was when he yelled at a few kids spray-painting a bench and told them to go off. “Always leave a place better then you found it” was his mantra which I inherited.
He probably saved my life there, too. We were sledding on the slopes of the park and as I descended there was an off-leash doberman that came charging at me. I’ve never liked those dogs since then. Dad ran down an icy slope and blocked it before it got to me.
Next time he saved my life by running downhill was in Up-State NY that summer. My little sis and I were messing around in our grandfather’s truck parked on a hill, when I started pulling levers. One of which was the emergency brake. Uh, oh since the truck was pointed downhill. My dad jumped out of a window he was painting as he saw the truck rolling, ran down, opened the truck door, karate kicked me out of the driver’s seat into my sister in the passenger seat, then yanked the brake and we stopped very close to hitting a tree and/or a brick wall.
Then he needs to move to FL. Bah.
It took 3 days to get from Brooklyn to Tampa. My mom and dad used my toy walkie-talkies to communicate between the vehicles since my dad was driving the big yellow Ryder Moving truck and my mom was on car-duty and cell phones were still a thing of the future. My mother was driving two girls in a friggin’ old-school Valari. Man, I wish I still had that car; it’s a classic now). My dad got me a piece of wood and some screwdrivers and I spent 3 days sitting in a car/truck boring holes into that thing and it was so much fun at the time.
Now we’re in this horrid state of “Tropical Paradise”. My dad keeps trying to get me outside. In ~90 degree F temps. I have to help with the lawn/leaves/etc but it isn’t fun. Heck, I was on car-wax duty on the Pontiac just so I could get allowance but I hated almost every minute of it.
Speaking of the Pontiac Sunbird (the car in which my father taught me how to drive) I had an accident in high school where some person jack-knifed the front-end. Their car was even more of a beater then ours so they were looking for just cash when they discussed it with my dad. Shortly after that, I was driving on the highway when the frame damage caused the hood of the car to pop up, shatter the windshield, bend over and dent the roof into my head and I’m still doing 75 on I-75. I pulled over and who do you think came ASAP to save me again? That would be dad.
When I moved to Boston and started college, I called home every week. Dad bought me a beeper since I didn’t have a long-distance number and he wanted to get ahold of me as needed. The first question I received when I called on the phone was “How are you?”. The next question was usually “Okay, how much do you need now?”. And he rarely said no especially if it was for books or classes. He sacrificed a lot for me and I’ll never forget that and I’ll try to pay it forward to my daughters, nieces, and nephews.
My dad had to travel for work much of the time. His work had a contract in Boston which was amazing for the two of us since he would come up almost every week and spend ~4 days here so we got to spend lots of time together.
After I graduated and extended our family with my amazing wife ,he also came and visited as much as he could with his wife Jeanne. He loved simply sitting down with his granddaughters, and they loved it too.
I have many more memories that I will be sharing. I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorites right now.
