Paterfamilias

Eagle Crest, Oregon

Elevation: 3,077 Feet

 

 

 

 

The parents retired a few years ago and are relaxing in their autum years out at Eagle Crest.  My father is a retired as Deputy Superintendant of the Oregon State Police  after 28 years and my mother retired from Marion County after several years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dad has gotten himself a little girl.  Her name is Molly Malone (named specifically after the "famous" irish prostitute).  Molly adores my father and my father adores the adulation.

He has picked himself up a Harley, a do-rag and some leather.  I am still wating for the earing, the pony tail and the berkinstocks, all of which he promised us boys all our lives he was going to get in order to embarass us.  We all know he hasn't got the stones to go do it so we may as well just let that one go.

He also loves to fish. 

But he doesn't eat fish. 

At all. 

Fish makes him seriously sick to his stomach.  Not just eating fish, but smelling it or sometimes even seeing it!  I used to work at a grocery store that had a small fish section in with the meats.  He couldn't come see me because seeing the fish made him sick.  He is the mystery man of contradiction; a riddle wrapped in an enigma cloaked in a fog of mystery.

My mother has picked up fishing a bit with the old man, though not going so far as to wear the goofy magnifying glasses on the end of your hat.  She volunteers to read to school children and is a socialite butterfly ordering meals from local restaurants to serve up at Candlelight Suppers for friends and neighbors.

They both were able to retire early, something most of us dream about but few actually get to do.  While their sanity left them some time ago, us boys have to take a large responsibility in this.  We were angels, there is no disputing this, but even angels have bad days.  Or weeks.  Sometimes even years.  Sometimes even eighteen years apiece.