My dad, Louis Wilbur Johnson, would have been 76 yesterday. Where does the time fly?
I remember when I was a wee lad, and could still walk relatively comfortably under the dinner table. My dad used to sneak up on me, and I would do a quick turn around and pull a punch. One day, he snuck up a little faster and I punched him right in the nose. Boy did it bleed.
One time I was sitting in my dads lap, I musta been about four, and I thought it would be a good idea to show my dad a new skill my Uncle Harry had taught me, head butting. I nailed dad right on the nose and dad spanked me, the one and only time he spanked me.
I remember one time I wanted a pair of cowboy boots. I got dressed up and wore my cowboy boots and had to have my hair like my dads. He used greasy kid stuff and had a wave in front as dark and black as an ocean wave at night. That night, I did too. I think we went to Portland Wrestling or something like that that evening. Somewhere, there is a photograph of me in my little outfit with my hair styled like my dads. I was so proud.
At my dad's 20th high school reunion (I think the 20th), he received hippy beads for being the lad with the longest hair. I think I have you beat, now, dad.
When my dad was dying, I used to go home from high school at noon and watch Perry Mason with him everyday. We'd cheer each and every one of those shows like it was a football game. Like we hadn't actually seen every episode at least a dozen times or more. Like we didn't know the outcome already.
We used to race back and forth on foot down the street to the corner store where dad would by a newspaper everyday. 10 cents was all he paid. I couldn't believe that so much paper would cost so little money. And we would laugh...OH how we would laugh.
where did I go in my mind that day?
All those memories would soon be memories
I wouldn't be able to share with you
except in dreams.
I still dream of you from time to time, dad
Your black hair still with the front wave
like Chief Joseph
but never as high as Cheif Joseph's.
No ones hair should be higher than
Chief Joseph's.
I always think you are alive in my dreams,
like a mistake had been made,
and when we hug...
I realize you are not alive
but just visiting in my dreams
and we go on our merry way
about doing what fathers and sons
would do together
as we age.
But you remain ageless, now.
The same as when I saw you
days before your death.
You are still alive in me, dad,
and today,
I miss you...
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