My mom dragged me down to Indianapolis when I was twelve. I didn’t want to be there from day one.
Everything was white bread smeared with butter and mayonnaise. No rye bread, no mustard, no hope and no Don Shepley.
I loved my mom, but there was no stability. I realized years later she was an unhappy woman. She blamed others for her problems and she loved using the Catholic guilt. She too had a drinking problem which made things worse.
My oldest son is sleeping in his room on a weekend that I don’t have visitation. He’s doing what I wanted to do forty years ago… Be with my Dad!
George is going through the same crap that I did, but he doesn’t have 178 miles of I-65 in the way.
I’ll give George credit. Somehow he sweet talked his bus driver to drop him off at my house after school on Thursday.
I will go out on a limb here.
Someday George will look back at Easter weekend of 2022 with great memories.
He gets to go one on one with JumboLove.
He started his day meeting the hot waitress at the local diner.
He got to drive into Chicago and practice his grid system.
He made me proud at the breakfast table, at the cigar shop and at the tavern for lunch.
We went up and said hello to his Godmother in Elmwood Park..
And here is where he floored me!
When we left Aunty Amy’s he asked me,
“Dad? Did you ever love Mom? Did you love Aunty Amy?”
Here was the biggest lesson George learned on Good Friday.
“George, I fell in love with both of them. I still love both of them, but I don’t like your mom… YOU CAN LOVE SOMEONE and NOT LIKE THEM…The difference between these two woman is one of them loved me back and the other didn’t. One of them held my hand and the other couldn’t.
Son… Love can only come from people that know how to love. My job is to love you unconditionally and you learn how to pass it along...”
The rest of the ride was quiet back down to Riverside.
I’m not sure George had a fucking clue what I was talking about, but he did see me parallel park on VanBuren and he had the love of his dad next to him all day. Someday I’ll tell him he probably cock blocked me this weekend.
Until then,
Still I’ll rise until the day I don’t….
