My father was 17 when he and my mother made me.
He was in Highschool at the time. I don't know much about who he was then short of a few facts and an old picture or two.
I know he broke his back in an auto accident around that time and could have died.
He was showing off, driving too fast and rolled a Volkswagon many times. One of the people riding with him said "he went out the driver's side window and came back in through the opening where the front window used to be as the car was rolling".
He recovered and later joined the Air Force. This was in the early 70s and the Vietnam war was going on.
100% of the classes, in that time , had been sent to Vietnam.
Half of his class, moved on from Air Force initial training and was sent to Vietnam but the other half was sent elsewhere. I am not sure if this was a random event but I think the fact that he was married may have helped him get a different assignment.
He was sent instead to Alaska and spent a year away there from my mother and me. I must have been 3 at the time.
I remember recording a cassette tape with my mother to send to my dad.
Being so small, I didn't understand that a cassette tape worked only one way, it is not a phone.
My mother said "say hello to daddy".
I said "daddy, daddy" and when he did not respond I cried. Somehow that tape got back to me and I have it to this day.
He was always very encouraging and though separated/divorced from my mom when I was 6, my dad and I stayed close.
He did move 1600 miles away but I was able to visit him during the summers and we became more friend's than father and son.
He lost a year long battle with Cancer when he was just 53 but he made a huge impact in my life.
The plastic red toy gorilla was a toy my father had when he was very young. I have that and a plastic green bear that was his. I treasure both of the toys.
