DUers, what did your dad do or say during your childhood that has influenced how you live

[txwhitedove]

85. No dad. Grandpa was my buddy. He had a firm sense of who "we" were. "We're Yellow Dog Democrats,

remember that." I did. Also, "We hate the English and the Irish," with a chuckle, and taught me to wear the family plaid on St. Patrick's Day. "We" were also Indian because his mother was half-Cherokee, "remember that but don't talk to grandma about it." He was a man of few words, but would crack up at his own stories that I could barely hear as we drove down country roads with the windows down. He taught me to play baseball, milk a cow, pick pecans, and love western movies. He gave me a sense of magic and mysticism about everything in this world. Then later in life in 1960's, he solemnly said "We hate Halliburton." Never elaborated, don't know if it went as far back as early oil days in Oklahoma, but that was my sense. Now wish I had recorded all his stories.