Dad by Loretta

[Editor's Note: This story was written by Loretta]

When I was a kid, I always enjoyed going with dad and visiting the family members and listening to them reminisce about their experiences in life.

Dad always kept in contact with people like great uncle Charlie Dixon who was grandma Willison’s full brother. When we visited him, he was living upstairs over a store in Oskaloosa. Great uncle Hutch, who was grandpa Willison’s deaf brother, lived in a retirement facility and used sign language to communicate. Dad bought a book on it and learned to sign from it. He wasn’t half bad either. Then there was Rose and Susie who were half sisters to grandma Willison. It always sounded so exciting to listen to their stories of how they grew up and lived in “olden times”.

That’s us now, talking to the kids of today, who look at us strange. What no computers or iPods or cell phones? In fact, there was no electricity! They just can’t comprehend.

I think dad had a well rounded life of experience, he used to say he was a man of all trades master of none.

Grandma had 16 children and when times got bad, she farmed the boys out. Dad went to a farmer who believed in education. He made sure that dad went to school everyday and worked on the farm before and after school and on weekends. I think that’s why dad started college, but he had no money to finish.

When he was looking for work dad, uncle Chester and uncle Ray used to ride the box cars and call themselves hobo’s. He always talked about it as “good times”. He could converse with anyone on any subject and make it sound interesting.

He used to visit Cora and Bob Rogers in Oskaloosa. Cora was dad's cousin. She had an old two story house in a neighborhood called “flies corners”. I never did find out why they called it that. She had Chinese fortune telling cards and when anyone came for a visit, they could have their fortune told for fun. Cora had a piano and Dad would play the piano by ear while people sang hymns. He was always the life of the party.

He made the most of his vacations by visiting as many people as he could on his treks across the country. I never knew we had so many relatives! Dad thought nothing about driving to Delta, Iowa and visiting the family down there. They tried talking him into going hunting with them but guns weren’t his thing.

Drinking wasn’t either. I don’t think he took more than a sip from any alcoholic beverage ever.

I remember when he traveled, he’d picked up strangers on the highway. One particular person was a girl, who was hitchhiking on her way back home from attending college in Phoenix, Az. He ended up taking her home and dropping her off. After his death, we found letters she had written him. Apparently, they had kept in contact well after that trip. There was a lot more to him than we knew.

One thing about dad, he was more open about his life when he was younger than mom was.

American Sign Language