My dad was a wonderful guy. He was always able to find the good in every situation, always able to find a solution to every problem, always happy to greet each new day. Here's a little story about one Christmas when I was about 4 years old:
Santa Claus had brought my little brother a Tonka truck. I think it was a dump truck, or a truck with a crane maybe. Anyway, it was made of metal (as toys were back then - not plastic) and about two feet long and almost a foot tall. My uncle Morris was at our house that morning when we opened our presents. Dad and Morris were putting batteries in the truck and showing Rick how it worked. They were running it all over the house, and Rick was toddling around behind them.
Well, Dad and Morris played with that truck so long that the batteries ran down! My mom got so mad at them she sent them out, on a snowy Christmas day (back then all the stores closed for Christmas - there were no Walmarts) to buy some new batteries to put in that Tonka truck. And "you'd better not come home without any!" I don't know how long they were gone, nor where they had to go to find them, but by george they did come home with some brand new D-batteries for Rick's Tonka truck. And then Rick finally got his turn to play with it.
Red was a saint. Just a completely good guy. Intelligent with a great personality and a terrific sense of humor. And, to his credit, I don't think anyone in the family regarded him as an in-law. Ask any one of us how he's related to us, we'd have to think about it. "Brother" would be the first thing that would occur to us. "In-law" would eventually occur to us but it would take a second's thought. For me, I had 3 brothers: Ronnie, Morris and Red. We were lucky that way. -- Bob
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