More questions about my life have been posed through Storyworth, as my family helps me compile my personal memoirs. The book now consists of 64 chapters, while we will eventually add photos and design a cover for publishing. It was last year’s Christmas gift. I was asked to please answer these questions: How do you like to spend a lazy day? When did you get your first car? How did you choose your children’s names? What do you admire most about your father? Some of this will be redundant since it’s been covered in other chapters. 

Let’s start with my dad. He was such a remarkable man, beginning with the fact that he was willing to include me and my sister Judy in his family. Adoption is not an easy process, having to undergo the scrutiny of background checks, supervision by the agency along the way, and not really knowing what you’re getting in raising someone else’s child. It takes strong, loving people to do this, and I’m not sure I would be willing to do it myself. Fortunately, we were able to have our son Adam naturally, naming him after the strong, handsome Bonanza character, Adam Cartwright of TV fame, played by Pernell Roberts. 

My dad was friendly, successful, and lived a long healthy, life. I couldn’t possibly have been luckier to have been raised by a man like him. Yes, he had a temper, was impatient, and spent too much time at the office, traits that I too developed. I often wonder how different it would have been to live life with my biological father. I now know his daughters and grandchildren, so it would have been a very difficult upbringing. As I continue to explore this side of my DNA ancestry, I recently discovered that William Penn, founder of the state of Pennsylvania and grandfather of the Declaration of Independence signer was my 11th Great Grandfather. (See Post #2349). He is probably my most famous biological ancestor, but my dad is by far my greatest hero.  

In retirement, most every day is now lazy. There is no alarm to start my day, just that daily run. I watch entirely too much TV, but as evidenced by the naming of my son, I was part of the first TV generation, and it eventually became my career. Going to a movie, is one of my favorite hobbies, so we hold annual passes to Regal Unlimited. I also enjoy going out to dinner, where doing dishes is not an option. Afternoon naps are becoming a habit. I like the comfort of air conditioning as opposed to the great outdoors and certainly don’t mind being alone. Once upon a time, traveling somewhere would have been part of a lazy day, but anymore it’s hard work. The ideal lazy day would be NO alarm, NO responsibilities and NO commitments. 

My driving test was at the wheel of my dad’s 1964 1/2 Mustang convertible. I also drove his other vehicles, a Ford Galaxy and Country Squire Station Wagon until the summer before my junior year at I.U. when I bought a brand new, bright red, 1971 Triumph GT-6 and took it to Bloomington with me. This car was an exercise in futility. It looked good on the outside but was a problem under the hood. This taught me a valuable lesson about investing in reliable transportation. What looks good doesn’t necessarily run good! I often think of myself in old age as looking good on the outside but rusted out on the inside, the refrain to this poem/song that I wrote many years ago. (See Post #1811 – Poem).