a summer night in 1976. I had graduated from school the year before and was still trying to figure out what the fuck I was going to do with the rest of my life. I had a job at the same place my dad worked. Back then, a lot of dads got their sons summer jobs in the factory.
I had gained experience in QC, machine tool rigging, working various production lines. Now, I was hired in as a Buyer which was front office stuff. My dad was a lead manufacturing engineer on a high profile product line. So we saw each other a lot at work.
Anyways, that summer night, we were alone in the house that evening. We went out for dinner, a clam shop minutes from the house on the ocean. We had a few beers with dinner, left, but kept drinking when we got back home. That night, dad wanted to listen to some music....as usual, it was Armstrong, Teagarden, Dorsey brothers. He told me about growing up in Brooklyn, before the war, and seeing all these guys at a place called the Paramount Theater....
All of a sudden he said, why don't you pick something of yours to play? One of your albums. Whoa, this was was strange. I lived in the basement and had my LPs done there. Brought up the Grateful Dead's "Skull and Roses" album. He was a big Gene Krupa fan and kept commenting on Bill Kreutzmann drumming....I mean, he really liked the music! He had a big smile when he recognized "Johnny B. Goode".
In my inebriated state, I asked dad,,,,"wanna smoke a joint"? In his inebriated state, he said," sure! Haven't smoked T since '38"....his teen years in Brooklyn
It was just a great night to talk, finally, man to man, with him, late into the early morning.
Dad was having issues with his glaucoma effecting his ability to read drawings....he had surgery scheduled for September, but suffered a fatal MI the night before, and he never woke up.
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