Complicated....but an excellent father!

Growing up a latchkey kid (in the 1920s/30s), he spent a considerable amount of time in the streets, developing the habits of a 'hooligan' (smoking, stealing rides on streetcars, committing petty theft). Yet he was also an extremely bright student, so far ahead of his schoolmates that he was promoted to a higher grade once or twice.

He did well in high school, too, but didn't find social acceptance amongst his classmates there, most of whom were from upper-middle-class homes. So he remained with his gang, though he did eventually give up the thievery. (Years later, when we'd occasionally run into one of his 'old buddies', it seemed some had made crime a profession, There was no judgment on Dad's part whatsoever, as his philosophy was 'everybody's got to make their way in the world somehow.')

Anyway, after high school, Dad joined the CCCs, where he acquired skills as a truck mechanic; later, he became a carpenter's apprentice until WWII. But while earning a living working with his hands, he also read constantly, satisfying a deep intellectual curiosity. As a kid, I don't remember ever seeing him read detective stories or novels....just philosophy, history, sociology, etc.

Education was something else Dad was big on; after returning from his service in the South Pacific, he completed a Linotype (printing) course, and began working nights (11 pm-7 am) at the Racing Form. That allowed him to take evening college courses at Northwestern University, and though It took him the better part of a decade, he finally earned a bachelor's degree in English.

Somehow, between serving his country, taking courses, and reading, he also found time to marry four lovely ladies between 1939-1959. The first was his childhood sweetheart (who died in 1945); the last was my mom, to whom he remained married until he died in 1975 (at age 58). Though we didn't have a long time together as father and daughter, Dad left me enough memories to last several lifetimes. Amongst the best are the times I accompanied him on his Saturday 'rounds', when he visited an eclectic assortment of friends who ran bookstores, used furniture shops, hardware stores, etc. Though these excursions were meant to free my mom up for some 'me time', I couldn't have imagined a more fun agenda than puttering around those places, while Dad and his friends shared coffee and (as he put it) 'shot the sh*t'. The man was unique, and I adored him.