Meeting up with my brother Pat and his wife Rose in New York
last month in New York was a really wonderful occasion for me. Pat and I are
fifteen years apart – something that seems a bit strange in today’ smaller
families – but because of that, by the time he was in kindergarten, I was
already in college. With a continent
between us, it has only been on rare occasions that we had a chance to get
together and , often, as for the illness or deaths of our parents, it was not
the happiest of circumstances. Perhaps
because I am a bit closer to encountering that scythe-wielding figure myself that in the last few years it has become
important for me to try to fill in some of the gaps in the saga of our
family. I frequently wish that I were
able to sit down with Dad or with Mom as she was before she had trouble
communicating, and ask them questions about their lives.. There is still much about them that I don’t
know or understand.
It has been eighteen years since Dad’s death. Had he lived,
he would have been 94 years old this month.
In the spirit of trying to keep some memory of him alive and, perhaps
just importantly, passing along a little about him to children and
grandchildren who met him long ago, if at all, I’m posting one of my ersatz
quizzes . It is one of those where those
who get the most answers wrong my likely benefit the most from having done it. (For ease, I’ll just use the word “Dad” in
the questions.)
1.Dad’s middle name was ______________.
(a) Edward,
(b) Lee, (c) Crocker, (d) Lewis
2. When he was growing up, Dad’s religion was ____________.
(a)
Catholic, (b) Baptist, (c) Episcopal, (d) Seventh Day Adventist
3. Dad played sports on a high school team. What was his
sport. (a) wrestling,
(b)
football, (c) baseball, (d) swim team
4. When Dad was
eleven years old, both of his parents died.
How did his mother die.
(a)
heart attack, (b) scarlet fever, (c) automobile accident, (d) drowning
5. After he graduated
from high school, Dad joined the Navy.
How long was he in the Navy?
(b) 5
years, (b) 10 years, (c) 15 years, (d) 20 years
6. Which of Dad’s
sons is named after him. (That is, their middle name is his first name.)
(a) Steve, (b) Dave, (c) Ed, (d) Pat
7. Which of these foods is the only one that Dad did not
like to eat.
(a)
tongue, (b) liver, (c) pickled pigs feet, (d) mutton
8. Dad always listed his eye color as ___________.
(a)
blue, (b) green, (c) hazel, (d) light brown
9. One of Dad’s favorite sayings was _____________________.
(a)
good things come in small packages
(b)
only the good die young
(c) if
you don’t have anything good to say don’t say
(d) if
its not your ass, its your elbow
10. Dad always said
he couldn’t sing, but when he was younger he did try to learn to play an
instrument.
What was it?
(a) guitar, (b) piano, (c) fiddle, (d)
trumpet
Answers.
(1) a, (2) b, (3) c, (4) d, (5) d, (6) a, (7) d, (8)
c, (9) c, (10) a
Let us know how you did. If everyone aced it, I’ll have to
post something harder.