My Dad...Part 1

...Last night I curled up in bed and read a section of a family history book that was written in 1988. I was especially interested in the sections about my dad, Gordon Skinner. Some of them are downright hilarious. Take this one, for example:

"Gordon was the last arrival in the Fred T. Skinner family, and he always claimed that his twin, Nelson, because he came first, got all the cream while he (Gordie) was left with just the skim milk!"

It's true. I remember my Uncle "Buzz" (Nelson) being a big bruiser of a man, while my dad was short and slight. Those two got into some mighty interesting mischief when they were kids. Some of the stories in the book describe their various (mis)adventures.

There were these two stories, for example:

"He (my dad) remembered clearly their first day of school at old Katepwe:

"The teacher's name was Miss Bennett and she put her arms around us a gave us a hug. Boy was I scared.""

[---]

"Then there was the 'Hide and Seek Incident':

it was early December and the twins were playing upstairs. One of them discovered, hidden behind the winter coats, two brand new sleighs. They looked at each other in disbelief and said, "There's no Santa Claus."

I remember my own "There is no Santa Claus" incident, which also involved my dad. I attended school in a little one room school. The annual Christmas Concert was the highlight of the year. The concert always ended with an appearance of Santa Claus, who passed out bags of candy to all the kids. For some reason, my dad disappeared shortly before the end of the concert. A few moments later in would come Santa. One year, I recognized Santa's big black boots and knew instantly that the man in the red suit was my father. I remember deep disappointment mixed with a bit of a thrill because I was on to an adult secret.

But I kept my mouth shut. I wanted the candy, I suppose. Sometimes it's better to feign innocence.

Part II; Part III