Losing Pop

This is a story that ran in our EDGE of the Lake Magazine. 

I was on a country highway I had not travelled in years. To my right, a road wound over a hill and then dipped away into a dense, green landscape. Something told me I had memories along that blacktop, right over that hill. I wasn’t sure what they were, only that they suddenly felt powerful and recent, not faded and lost. There was no time to turn back and investigate.We were going to my father in law’s bedside. He was dying.

His given name was Gerald. Depending on who you were and what he meant to you, you might also have called him Pop, or Counselor, or General.     

The first morning I visited his home as his daughter’sboyfriend I found coffee, toast and fruit in the kitchen. No one else was around, so I put some margarine on the toast. There is no word to describe how bad that margarine tasted. I checked the date on the container. It had been purchased three, maybe four boyfriends previous. 

Just after I spit the toast into the garbage my future father in law came in. He was wearing running shoes with no socks and shorts that looked like cocktail napkins strapped to his upper thighs. Most sweating men would reach for water. He poured a cup of coffee. Then he picked up a piece of toast and dug a knife into that margarine.

I try to tell myself there wasn’t time to warn him, but it was more than that. The front walk leading to his door had been worn down by the soles of many suitors. I said nothing because I represented a sudden change in the boyfriend lineup and had no idea where I stood with this man. 

When he crammed that toast and God-awful margarine into his mouth I waited for his eyes to pop out. I waited for him to run to the garbage can. But there wasn’t even a grunt. He just stared at me and chewed while a puddle of sweat gathered at his feet. Then he washed down that margarine plutonium with scalding coffee. His expression never changed. 

That sums up Pop nicely for me. Even when things weren’texactly right he wouldn’t let you know it. He knew that silence could be as powerful as words, although that rule was always dumped when the stories started flowing with dinner and wine. And, at least for that moment, I represented the enemy by way of a new boyfriend. Of course, he would never let me see weakness.

I don’t know, maybe that’s just me looking at it. Sometimes Pop intimidated me even after twenty years and four grandchildren. Not so much by who he was, but by who I wanted to be. He was a big man in many ways, with big appetites and a bigger heart. Not the kind of guy you heard say “ouch” too often. He adhered to a strict moral divide between right and wrong, and if something needed to be said, no matter how cringeworthy or painful, he would do it, plainly and right to your face. Sometimes he would stare at me and all the bad decisions I’d made in life seemed naked before him. And yet, I solicited his advice on numerous occasions and he never once told me what to do. He would listen, ask questions, listen some more, ask more questions, and then the answer I sought would suddenly be there.

I think that’s called wisdom. And grace. And generosity. And patience.  

Pop’s death was a terrible loss, but I try to see his life as a victory. He was married to the woman he loved for more than fifty years. Who wouldn’t covet what they shared during the time they had together? They raised a family, they travelled, they made a difference in the lives of people around them. And they did it all while they loved one another. I am sad only because Iwanted them to have a chance to make a few more memories, and maybe be with them while they did it.  

On my wife’s birthday we travelled home to say goodbye to her father. 

She grew quiet as we stopped at the town’s first red-light. Roads filled with distant memories were all around us. Memories that came alive as we passed. I had turned left on that street, sneaking to Pop’s office to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage. (I was terrified. He made it easy.) I took a left on that road, then a right, to reach the house where he got to know his grandchildren and ate that terrible toast. Further down the same street to the left was the church where I married his daughter.

Those were some of my memories as we drove to the far side of town. To their final home. I know my wife was reliving those and many more.

We pulled up to their house. The rest of the family was inside. For more than twenty years I had been arriving at homes owned by this man, my children and pets and noise and chaos spilling out of the car. For the first time ever, this one time, I did not want to be there.

Interview: Jeff Charleston

 

 

I recently talked to Jeff Charleston, Head Coach at Ochsner Performance Training. Of course most people know him from his time with the Saints, including their Super Bowl win.

 

 

 

 

 

Birds and the Bees

Years ago, after my wife told me it was time to have the Birds and the Bees talk with our oldest son, I butchered the whole thing pretty badly. I over explained everything. There was a near fainting, and you could say that about either of us. Afterward, I couldn’t help but think about the time my dad had the same conversation with me.

I don’t remember exactly where we were; I just remember it was the two of us and he was acting like somebody had died and then he thrust a book at me. The title was something like “Little Timmy Learns How Mom and Dad had a Tickle Fight Under the Covers and Used Love and a Little Sweat Equity to Make a Baby.” I saw where this was going and how pained Dad was, and I tried to ease his discomfort. I said, “Are you telling me my sweet, dear mother was involved in something like this?”

My dad can be a tad proper. So with the book he said, “All right, son, it’s all in there. You know, read it. I don’t think you’ll have any questions. But if you do have questions, read it again, because I’m pretty sure the answers are somewhere in that book.”

Obviously when he went to the bookstore Dad was too embarrassed to browse through the sex books. I’m thinking he found this one in the comedy section. It was six pages long and based on the detailed drawings, it must have been written by a NASA engineer with some kind of doodle disorder. There were stick figures for visual aids and what should have been pretty simple personal hardware was flying in all different directions and in and out of things. It looked like rockets were blasting off everywhere.

After perusing this book, I immediately knew something was terribly wrong with me, since the male stick figure had an appendage long enough to wrap around the planet. And I really couldn’t get my mind past that. It all blurred before my eyes now that I knew, stick figure or not, that I would never be capable of having one of those tickle fights should I so choose to do so.

Some people say we all want to be like our parents. I know I do. But I also think, in many instances, we want to be for our children what our parents were not. It is a generational, parenting shift that all of us can see if we bother to look.

According to the stories they told me, my grandparents fed my parents bugs because there was no money for food. They did the whole “walking both ways uphill to school in the snow” thing. And they also made their clothes out of animal hides. I’m pretty sure that means Dad never had to learn about sex from some dumb book and instead figured it out from watching all of those naked farm animals that were apparently wandering around his dirty, bare feet.

Then my father showered his own children, us, with things he did not have growing up, and maybe he didn’t make us work as hard as he should have.

Please don’t think I am knocking my father. There is no one I respect more. He is an attorney, and did a little hard time in politics. If you are ever accused of a major crime, and you actually committed that crime, then I could not think of a better person to get you off. Don’t burden him with the facts. He’ll win in spite of your stupidity or your temporary moment of bloody passion. That’s because he can form a bond with a jury, or a political crowd, as well as anyone. I think it’s because he can figure out their own stories before he gives them his.

A lot of people talk about how quiet my dad can be. I don’t think he is necessarily a quiet person; I just don’t think he says much unless he’s got something to say.

So, at this stage in life, politics is long gone. Dad still practices law and has entered what I call his vegetable growing years. Maybe, for him, the ending will be a little bit like the beginning. Growing what you eat. Animals scurrying about underfoot.

Now my oldest son is probably closer in age to the time he could talk to his own offspring about how life comes to be. It’s just a thought, but maybe Dad could have taken me out to the old farm and let me watch the animals go at it, instead of giving me that dumb book.

Interview: Lisa Condrey Ward

I recently got to interview Lisa Condrey Ward from the Southern Hotel and Alton Davis from Pascal Architects. They wanted to talk about The Garden House, Lisa’s newest addition to the hotel.

 

Speaking to Death

 

My wife and I waited in a line that snaked down the church steps. We were there to pay our respects to the family of a friend. The funeral director approached us. Even though we no longer lived in the town where I grew up, our paths had not been totally different since high school. I eventually ended up in radio. He found himself in the funeral business by way of country music.

We spoke about the friend who had passed, he hugged my wife, and then the funeral director said, “Tell your mom I’ll put that dented coffin in her garage.”

Perhaps my mouth hung open.

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” my old friend said. “It still closes and it’s never been used. It’s just got this big dent on one end and I told her I’d give her a real good price.”

Just for the sake of saying something I asked what it looked like. The dented coffin was white, and offered a plush, pink interior.

I immediately wondered if my mother was trying to get more mileage out of her lifelong companion. Maybe she planned to prop that coffin on two saw-horses in the garage. He would see it every day as he left for work and when he came home, just in case he was getting a little life weary. She was probably betting my father would live another twenty years just to keep from being buried in anything pink.

I didn’t have more time to consider my mother’s dented coffin because we entered the church.

The family we had come to see stood along the front, meeting person after person who filed past to pay their respects. The woman who died had been smart, opinionated, beautiful, and wonderfully Southern. When we reached the front of the room, I looked into to the eyes of her husband and tried to imagine myself on his side of our exchange. I could not. The burden of what was before him and the weight of what he had endured was etched in his face. He had seen and was seeing things I could not comprehend.

I had no idea what to say.

At these times, there are few among us who really know what to say or how to say it. My wife does. But many of us stumble down the line, mumble something about loss, and try to get clear as quickly as we can. On this day, the father who was about to bury his daughter bragged about some cheese-straws my mother had delivered to the heartbroken family. The mother who had lost her child hugged me and thanked me for taking the time to come. And the woman who had just lost her sister asked about my family, calling me by name among the hundreds who were lined up to pay their respects, even though we had not seen each other in years. I offered little, other than my physical presence. I could not think of anything to impart that was close to worthy of what they had lost. And, they sensed that discomfort in me and compensated for it. That’s how funerals go sometimes. The bereaved work hard to ease the comforters.

And I’m not being hard on myself. Having been to plenty of funerals, I’ve seen those who are trained to provide solace struggle to speak about loss in a meaningful way. I often wonder if the mourners in the front of the church, staring up at whoever is delivering the eulogy, only hear the teacher from Charlie Brown and a dull string of noises that mean nothing. Or are they clinging to every word because it is the last time someone will speak about their loved one before they are lowered into the ground?

I don’t know. It is probably a little bit of both.

Throughout history, it meant something for people to say you died well after you were gone. I will not die well. If I have time to consider my coming demise, I am going pass from this world like a kidney stone. Even now, when I enter a room, I check out the people in it to see who I do, and do not, want providing resuscitation should I pass out. I constantly keep a mental score of exercises skipped, fried meals eaten, and drinks imbibed, hoping that my behavior, or lack of it, might have a direct impact on my day of reckoning.

Despite the problems I think I have, and the fact that we all exist on borrowed time, just being in the church that day made me want to live longer and better. I didn’t comfort anyone at the funeral, but, indirectly, it comforted me. I’m still here. I’ll speak to death at as later date, even though I know it is waiting. Not unlike a dented coffin, on two saw-horses in a garage.

A Bunker in the Sky

 

We took our Thanksgiving break with my wife’s family in Gulf Shores this year, where my in-laws own a condo. It was a large group and two more condos were needed. One of them, the one my crew stayed in, belonged to a friend of the family and was in the same building as the one my in-laws have on the fifth floor. This borrowed unit was on the fourteenth floor. I will be the first to admit I can get a little squeamish with heights. As long as I look toward the broad expanse of water it doesn’t bother me. But if I look down while standing at the rail, I’m in trouble.  The fourteenth floor only amplified my unsteadiness. The views from within, like the unit I had been in many times below, were unbelievable. And even on the balcony I was good, as long as I didn’t get too close to the rail.

Strangely enough, once we were up there, heights or not, I felt safe. Like I had my little family in a bunker in the sky.

So we did the family event and my sister-in-law downloaded some sketchy virus on her computer and blamed it on me but other than that the time went too fast and too easily.

On the final morning I loaded the car, got everyone downstairs, then make one last sweep of the condo. The view caused me to hesitate. As I was standing there, fourteen floors up, I thought, what if we didn’t leave? What if we squatted in this guy’s condo? How long, legally, would it take him to get us out?

Sure, you could say that doesn’t sound real charitable of me. The guy has let me stay in his condo and I choose to repay him by locking my family in there and not coming out. But, on the other hand, was it really the nicest thing he could have done? Exposing my family to his wonderful place and then expecting us to voluntarily vacate? So, I thought, what would happen if I made a quick run for supplies, barricaded the door with some heavy furniture and set a watch on the balcony? How long could we make it as squatters in paradise?

You don’t hear about this happening much along the Gulf Coast. Most of the time when you see these squatting situations on the news it involves a ranch and some guys in unfortunate combinations of flannel, not a bathing suit and a hot tub. But why is that so?

I began to imagine how it would shake out once we barricaded ourselves inside the condo. Would the authorities be forced to set up a command post in the parking lot far below? Maybe one of them would yell up at us with a bull horn: “Come down with your hands up.” And we would look over the rail while holding a margarita and yell “no thank you”.

For that matter, which child would I let deal to the negotiator when they called? Wayne is so stubborn he will say no just because you said yes, so he would be no good. Beth would be perfect except she doesn’t do old fashioned communications like a phone so unless the negotiator reached out to us through Snap Chat or Instagram she’s out. Jacks seems like the logical choice but he has a sly, devious side so I wouldn’t trust him to keep the flash bang grenades at bay. Maybe Wilkins would be the best, since he talks at length about anything and has a pretty cheery disposition. Yes, he would probably buy us the most time before the SWAT team made their forced entry into our bunker in the sky.

And then I shook myself out of it.

Yes, I voluntarily left the fourteenth floor without any drama. Well, except for the chaos that typically travels in our car. But on the way home I thought about those rancher types with their boots in manure and their compounds and their guns and crazy anti-government rhetoric and decided they have it all wrong. Condos high above the Gulf are where this type of dissent should be going on. A little sun-block and some Vienna Sausages will go a long way. And even now I’m there in my mind. Safely barricaded away with my little brood on the fourteenth floor, my problems and a crazy, scary world looking awfully small far down below.

 

 

Vacation Truth

 

 

When I go on vacation I always tell myself this will be the time when I get my life together, even if only for a short while. Somehow, I will escape the crazy and chaotic life I lead and enjoy one week of a calm and serene existence. I will exercise on the beach before dawn. There will be sessions of yoga, where I will learn that Downward Dog is nothing to be ashamed of if I accidentally type it into my Internet browser. There will be bran cereal, yuck, but being regular helps with the calm and serene. (And then I remind myself to go easy on the bran since I never eat the stuff and there is nothing calm and serene about being TOO regular.) So, that is what I imagine the yearly family trek to the beach is going to be like.

But, in reality, my vacation always becomes a jail break from responsibility. There is hair of the dog instead of Downward Dog. There are little nephews screaming a dirty phrase in unison again and again, not because they know what it means but because they heard someone scream it… maybe me… six hours before the hair of the dog thing. There is not a shred of bran but plenty of Pop Tarts and Frosted Flakes. And, instead of a new me returning home, it is an older, exhausted me after my vacation becomes a parenting Studio 51 with sand.

I tell myself what I want in life is discipline, but that is only another word for control. I want to eat right, take long walks with my wife, sleep through the night, and generally end each day with hope for what the next day holds and how brilliantly I will manage it. But I’ll probably never get it or do it. Time is going to keep plowing forward. My kids are walking, talking adults when just yesterday they were the Dennis the Menace twosome that are now my nephews.

I also imagine the vacation experience will be moderately high brow, otherwise I would have vacationed in Daytona. Mostly it isn’t. There is late night heckling over vicious games of dominoes, steamy beach reads in well-thumbed paperbacks that are banned in libraries across half the country, and statements yelled down from the balcony at other family members that the Kardashians would consider crass. I heard a couple of gems this past week, like this one from the back seat of the minivan as we traveled there: “Hey Dad, sorry but I gotta drop a deuce. What can I say? You sleep, you eat, you poop. It’s the circle of life, dude.” Or the one that sounded like a Darth Vader imitation as I passed a darkened bathroom with the door closed. Someone was clearly enjoying the echo in the small space: “Yup, I’m peeing in the dark. And from the sound of things I’m doing a pretty good job.”

Now, perhaps you are noticing there is a lot of potty content. I wiped the butts of these little creatures which meant I was involved in every “movement” they had and yet what is currently happening with our digestive systems seems to be even more conversationally relevant now than when I was chasing them down the hall with a slightly uncomfortable but thankfully clean Pampers knock-off. And I know this will not get better as I age. Hell, I might be closer to those diapers than they’re away from them.

I don’t know. Maybe it is time for me to be a little more honest with myself, and with my writing. Truth be told, I am a lazy writer. I start great, I finish not so well. Clearly, lack of sleep or alcohol are not steroids for the sport of writing, despite what some scribes would have you believe. I can barely focus my thoughts long enough to write a check, let alone a novel. I am not taking care of myself. And sometimes I look the other direction when it comes to proper parenting. In some ways, with both my writing and my life, I feel like I’m nearing the point where Picasso cut off his ear. (Except right now I write and live by the numbers, and I have pretty big ears, too.)

And despite all this complaining, I would not give up a single thing I have now to achieve whatever the hell I think I am seeking when I set off on a break from my day to day life. I am desperately in love with my wife. I am so proud of my kids it is probably a little nauseating for those who have to hear it. I still enjoy the company of my extended family. I get satisfaction out of my job. And, at the end of the day, I feel pretty good about the person I am trying to be.

So maybe vacation is supposed to be exactly what it always is for me. A jailbreak from the responsibility of being a husband, a father, and a decent person. (I am not talking about full blown debauchery here, but it ain’t things I’m doing on a typical Tuesday either.)

And now the family unit is setting off for another vacation with the other side of the extended family for the 4^th of July. Maybe as we pack the car I will make the same lies to myself about peace of mind and exercise and discipline. Except I’m not sure this crew we’re visiting practices a ton of yoga, and I can’t wait to hear what they say if I ask about bran cereal.

The Graduate

 

(I wrote this last week prior to my son’s graduation.)

 

 

I was sitting on the front steps of my parent’s house. My best friend was there as a witness. My first son was teetering on his feet before us, then he wiped out onto the driveway. Grabbing my best friend’s arm before he could instinctively aid the fallen child, I whispered, “Don’t move.” My son looked around, debated whether it was worth the effort to cry, decided it wasn’t, then went back to the business of getting to his feet. Once again he teetered like the planet was spinning a little too fast. He steadied himself, then took one step, and another, and another. Then my son made a joyous noise as he waddled away from us with alarming speed. We huddled there like we were watching a rare animal on the Serengeti.

“He started doing it last night,” I whispered.

My best friend hadn’t had his first child yet. “Amazing,” he breathed.

My son was ten months old. He had just learned to walk.

 

—————–

 

 

 

Fast forward seventeen years. In just a few days my son will take one of life’s other important walks. I doubt his steps will be as hesitant when he accepts his high school diploma and begins a new chapter in his life. And I begin a new one in mine.

(He might fall down though, since he will be wearing actual shoes, something his perpetually bare feet might not understand. He got away with the sandals at his awards ceremony, but he was told the Jesus shoes were a no-go for graduation. We’re praying he doesn’t try to stage some kind of protest.)

I know I am supposed to give him advice at this stage in life. That’s what we do as our children step out into the world, right? And, yet, I am struggling to do so. There are a few things I guess I would offer:

1. Home is a state of mind that has nothing to do with bricks and mortar.
2. Being imperfect is a good thing. Imperfections are what make you interesting.
3. I hope your college introduces you to someone named Al or Lou, a Dan-the-man, a Vinnie, a Ray-baby or a (insert any of 25 names here). Your college friends will entertain you, challenge you, and might even get you arrested. Together you will make memories that will be a big part of the rest of your days, if only in small batches.
4. And maybe, just maybe, you might meet the love of your life, even if you don’t know it at first.

But as I write those words I know that advice is more about my life and less about his own. It is time for him to chart his path now. The stakes are much higher than in my time. Things are different. Schools are expensive. Money is tight. And but for his own accomplishments the path he takes right now would not be possible.

So why am I not more nervous for him? Maybe that will come later but I don’t think so. This young man truly seems to be made up of the best parts of the people who created him, and a few more good quantities we can’t claim. He is smart, competitive and bullheadedly stubborn. He is also open-minded, accepting of others, and has a gentle heart. Oh sure, there have been a few moments of eyebrow raising stupidity. (Like maybe he needed to prove that he is my son.) But as he enters college I mainly hope that life’s great unknown storms on the horizon don’t burden his mind too much and that he will enjoy the relatively calm waters of any given day. His days in college, like life itself, will pass in a blur.

I had the opportunity to witness a kindergarten graduation the same week my son will graduate from high school. (If only everyone had to attend a kindergarten graduation once a year and wash off the ugliness of being an adult there would be far less hunger, death and anger in this world.) Seeing both ceremonies in the same week made me think about who my son was as a little boy, and the man he is now. And it reminded me that life never stays the same. It always changes. In my rational mind I know it is time for my son to leave. He is a grown man. He is ready. In my emotional heart I know I will miss the boy beyond words.

I have been watching him find his way for eighteen years now.

So life’s safari continues. And I will continue observing his accomplishments from the bushes while searching for a word that means profoundly happy, impossibly proud and terribly sad all at the same time.

Maybe that word is parenting.

Winter Love for Bethany

 

This is a time in life where we don’t go on a lot of traditional dates.  They are most often spontaneous gatherings on the back porch. These dates usually involve the drink of choice and most often it is a double date with our dogs.

 

We talk about our problems. (To quote Moneyball: all uptown problems.) We share stories about our kids, our extended family, work and whatever else comes to mind. I get a hug or two but wintertime hugs are not the best hugs since she gets COLD when it drops below 60 degrees outside. So yesterday I was not hugging her so much as I was hugging layers and layers of clothes. I mean, I knew she is in there somewhere. And, I did get to steal a kiss, but it wasn’t a long one because the dogs don’t like it, and if we carry on too long we’ll hear some kid inside the house screaming for us to cut it out.

 

 

 

 

This was our view yesterday as the sun went down and it got me thinking about rebirth and growth and the quiet times we share with the person we choose love more than any other. I’m lucky because the winters in our relationship are usually mild and short, like the ones here in Louisiana. To say our love is perfect would be a lie. But when we slow down, when the spark between us goes dormant for whatever reason, we always seem to come back stronger, enjoying the bright colors and warmth of our renewed love all that much more.

 

For Valentine’s Day this year the love of my life gets to enjoy new braces, a trip to Costa Rica, another one to Disney and still ANOTHER trip to the mountains of North Carolina. She gets to travel to dusty sports complexes to watch our boys chase and kick a round ball, and after that, she’ll get to watch them throw, catch and hit a smaller ball. She’ll start paying college tuition, too, and she will actually take great pleasure from each of these things.

 

But she’s not really going anywhere and she’s certainly not getting braces. She’ll be on the back porch with me. If things go the way I’m planning, we’ll manage to have a few dates near the garden in the side yard, where we’ll watch the radishes, the cucumbers and the tomatoes grow. The options are limited in such a small space, but maybe we’ll find somewhere different to stand while we share our thoughts and admire each other. Hopefully it’ll be out of sight from the house so I can steal a few more kisses.  At least till the dogs start barking at us, and that’s good enough for me.

The bride at jukebox

The bride has been criticizing the bar juke box all night… Shes in charge now. Started with “Why Georgia Why”… Coldplay up next. We’ll see where it goes from here but I suspect there is some disco in my near future.