My Dad - again!:-)

Since I'm kind of stuck home, with various pieces of furniture floating around my house, I figured I'd take a break and write a little post about my dad. I have located the slide show we used at his memorial service and it seriously made me laugh. You can't look at my dad and not have a smile rise on your face. He was such a quirky, shameless man of unique taste and habits. After he died, it was so funny to listen to the various memories and stories people told of him. Each one revealed an oddity, a passionate eccentricity that my father embodied and lavished on all who knew him. Just for the sake of this post, we'll call them "Rudyisms".

Rudyism #1 - Fashion faux pas - never!! My father was known to wear shirts inside out for an entire day teaching, wear two different shoes, dress in plaids AND patterns at the same time and his knee high socks were a staple, even when wearing shorts. True story - when I was in college, my mom let it slip that my dad was looking at a car for me. The dealer might call while they were out for breakfast that Saturday morning, but I was not to know. Of course, they forgot to tell me where, so when that dealer called and I had to track them down, I called The Pie Plate and said, "I'm looking for a man who is likely wearing a blue striped shirt, light blue shorts with a red and white striped belt and knee high socks with sneakers." Without hesitation the woman replied, "Yup, I see him!" Embarrassing, but true, he stuck out like a sore thumb and he had no qualms about it! Add a large and bulky pair of sunglasses to the mix and he was pretty sure he was ready for GQ (which in his case stood for Grossly Quirky!).

Rudyism #2 - Waving for pictures is the in thing! Our entire trip to Hawaii I believe my dad waved for nearly every picture, including the one of him snorkeling. In that photo, he managed to wave both hands above the water! I'm not really sure if he was saying hi to you, the viewer, or if he was making sure the person behind the camera could see him, would center him and not the girls sunbathing, as was his own MO. I mean, really dad, who could miss those tube socks?

Rudyism #3 - The smirk. It was so funny looking through the slide show and seeing the pictures of him as a child. He perfected the smirk, otherwise known as the "Lovegren glare", as a youngster no doubt. It's even noticeable in his baby pictures! My father was kind enough to pass this one along to his three children and it's already evident that at least three of his grandchildren have almost perfected it as well. Now that is a feat.

Rudyism #4 - Herman and Henrietta. They are the two characters he made out of his hands. I thought he created them for me, but I found this one picture where he's just having a little discussion with them before I was old enough to be entertained by them. I wonder where they came from? Oh, the things we miss asking when we lose someone too early! The picture is a classic, and I'm so glad that I found it.

Rudyism #5 - I'm going to lump his overwhelming interests into one ism - they include money, history, education, the Bible, weather and science fiction anything. If you happen to open up a conversation involving any of those things, he would talk both your ears off and move on to the next victim. Now, you are probably thinking, "Why would I ever talk about any of those things?" My father had this uncanny way of turning any subject matter into something related to his favorite subjects, that is, if he wanted to talk. There was only one thing that could distract my father away from long, drawn out yet intriguing conversation....

Rudyism #6 - If there was a way to implant a remote control into your hand, my father would have been the first volunteer for this new, ingenius science! My father would not be caught dead without his remote control. We even saved one that had the buttons worn down so far they didn't work anymore!! Probably one of my most hysterical memories was when my brother hid in the kitchen with the universal remote and behind my fathers back would change the channels just after he did. My father became furious at his malfunctioning remote until he realized we were all laughing behind him. Good thing we were older, because as children the golden rule in our home was "never mess with Daddy and his TV!"

While it may sound very insensitive of me having fun with my dad's memory, I must tell you that he was extremely proud of each and every one of his unique characteristics. He honed them, perfected them and shared them with everyone. If I opened this post up to his family and friends, you would be shocked at the Rudyisms and the fact that each person would recognize that my father himself would have been overjoyed to be recognized in this way. You see, my father had a unique ability to not allow what other people thought of him get in the way of him enjoying life and living the way he chose. Certain things mattered to him in life and everything and everybody else just didn't interfere with that. He took our advice to heart, chuckled along with us or basically ignored the things he didn't believe. If he wanted to wear flower shorts and knee highs, he was going to do that!