About my Pop

Whenever I say let's take a picture he says oh you always make me do this. He can't believe you can take photos with "those things" (phones).

He's a little old American heavily influenced by the Italian man who wears pants that are at least five sizes too big for him held up by suspenders. He wears big glasses and in recent years has tended towards youth sneakers. He humors us when we all bring suspenders to a party in his honor. Or when some of us go rooting through his closet and reappear outside in his clothes.

He drinks red wine in the afternoon and sometimes at 2 in the morning if he is woken up and needs to go back to sleep.

He calls females "woman" and men "boy." He has six kids and many grandchildren and great grandchildren. We have all been called the wrong name more than a few times. His nickname is Hon.

He is a great storyteller and quick to laugh at himself.

He worked his ass off and is fully enjoying retirement - he loves to go to the fishing hole or to McDonald's in the mall food court with his crew of old man friends. They gossip and tell stories and watch women walk around the mall.

He also likes to just sit out on the porch or next to the window and think.

The best tomatoes I've ever had have come from his garden.

When I was sick as a little girl, he was very nurturing. I love Vicks to this day and associate it with his care and kindness.

Instead of saying here you are he says hee-yah.

If you say I love you when you're getting off the phone, he either replies thank you or very good.

He replies very good to a lot of things. It's a habit I've picked up.

If you take him somewhere and refuse the $20 he wants to give you for gas, he will hide it in your car and then cackle when you call him to tell him you found it.

When he wins the lottery he wants me to take the sick kids from St. Christopher's to Disney. He was a sick kid himself. I've talked him out of giving the rest to the church in lieu of buying/building a family shore compound.

He always wants to pay at restaurants and will try to arrange this with the hostess on the way in if you're not looking.

He had to leave school early to work and help support his family. He never learned to read, but he is wiser about the world and the people operating in it than most MBAs I know.

I don't think I'd be wrong in saying he's the favorite person of everyone in my family.

My Pop is 85 today. And I'm grateful I've had him for so long.