A Time of Joy

I have been overwhelmed with how my dad has touched people's lives.  Meetings that were seemingly trivial to me, I now realize, are forever engraved in people's minds.  After speaking to my best friend Veronica, I became aware of my dad's big personality.  I met Veronica when we were both undergrads at UC, Santa Cruz.  I would often talk about my dad and what a support he was to me.  She would laugh at the stories I'd tell her about him and she couldn't wait to meet him.


After we'd graduated, Veronica finally got that chance when she came to Santa Barbara to stay with me.  At that time she was planning her wedding and was having trouble finalizing things.  My dad insisted he had all of the answers to her wedding woes.  For every problem Veronica presented, my dad would take a minute to ponder before flicking his pointer finger in the air and announcing "I got it!"  Veronica didn't use any of his ideas but we got a good laugh out of his efforts!


Later in the week, Veronica decided we needed to rent Surrey bikes down at East Beach and cruise around like real tourists.  We'd gone far off of the path and ended up doing donuts at the zoo near Dwight Murphy Field.  It wasn't long before we saw a big, red truck pulling up and we instantly knew who it was.  My dad had been cruising around the beach with Cowboy.  He laughed at us and told us to get back on the path and then gave us his bag of candy orange slices.  My dad always knew how to make me feel like a kid.