Remembering Herb.

I’ve got some time on my hands because Sam is working late tonight so I thought I’d put together another post ... this time about my dad. July 12 marked eight years since he passed away; yesterday would’ve been his 90th birthday. This terrific photo was taken in 1943 when dad was in the Army Air Force and stationed in London.

Dad was a truly memorable character with sparkling gray eyes and a dry sense of humor. In addition, he ...

• was obsessed about classical music and played the clarinet in a fine arts quartet;
• had a HUGE extended family of first and second cousins, most of whom were a lot older than him (his mother was the youngest of nine children);
• learned to drive a car when he was 12 years old;
• played in the Lakeview High School marching band and performed for President Franklin Roosevelt when he visited Chicago in 1934;
• spent the summer of 1965 harvesting tart cherries from a tree in our back yard and filled the freezer with his own homemade cherry strudel and pies;
• loved family road trips and taught me to read maps when I was seven;
• adored Laurel and Hardy movies and could recite Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s On First?” routine word-for-word; and
• blasted his stereo before breakfast on Sunday mornings, particularly Richard Rodgers’ “Victory at Sea” and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s Greatest Hits. (On national holidays we were treated to John Philip Sousa.)

It’s interesting how the memories get clearer with each passing year ... I can even remember the sound of his voice. And I miss him more than ever.