If asked about my daddy, I would immediately respond that he taught me how to play poker, shoot pool and drink whiskey. He did all those things and although he might have always wanted a son to teach how to play baseball, he was a wonder in my life. As the youngest of four daughters, I lived a life of being the son he never had, growing up attending Alabama Football games, watching baseball games, and even Friday night boxing matches on TV. His love of life taught me so many valuable lessons and I will always be indebted to him for making … what’s the phrase…a man out of me.
My daddy grew up in Tuscaloosa dreaming of being a major league baseball player; he was that good. But during the Depression, he sacrificed those dreams, missing team practices in order to work and help out at home. He helped farm the vegetables to put food on the table, eating black-eyed peas and roastin’ ears because that’s what they had. I never saw him eat black-eyed peas; saying he swore when he grew up he’d never eat them again and he didn’t.
If we are molded by the persons in our lives who gave us life and silently set an example to live by, then my dad is my hero and always will be. I remember him for being a hard working, honest man who loved life to the fullest. He was a private person, hiding his disappointments and pains, but wearing them like a badge of courage. When he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he told us – his family – that the doctors said he was curable and a little pill was all he needed, and got up the next morning and went back to work. He often told me to be honest with myself because you are truly the person you are when no one else is watching you. He said, “Cheating at Solitaire is the greatest sin.” I don’t know if I live up to his creed, but I will always try.
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