Snow Day Talk With My Dad

As snow fell Dad and I sat down together with coffee in the living room and killed some time before Perry Mason aired. We start every morning with Perry and I must say that watching that show does tend to get one’s day off to a fine start because the prosecutors always lose, and in doing so, justice prevails.

During our conversation, I learned:

That in the early 1960s when my dad was a minster in Parkdale, Oregon he used a WW II surplus flamethrower in a Hood River apple orchard to suppress weeds. What? He said the orchard’s owner knew he was an ex combat Marine in Korea and doubtless had experience with a flamethrower, and Dad was looking for a little extra income, so why not? He told me one time the flamethrower threw up a nasty backflash that singed his eyebrows and could have easily killed him.

He once walked to grade school when it was 32 degrees below zero.

When he was 47 years old, Dad joined the Oregon National Guard. He was a teacher at Ogden Junior High in Oregon City at the time and then had the distinction of being the oldest man ever to join the Guard (maybe he still holds the title!). Dad told me he did it as a lark, for the extra dough, and of course, he had his summers off to fulfill his required weeks of service. He even got to travel to Hawaii and practice amphibious landings! I was examining his discharge papers from the Guard and it said he was rated as an expert marksman with the M-16 in his early 50s!

Also in his military papers was his original $5000 GI insurance policy he signed up for in 1953 right before his discharge from the Marine Corps. He’s been paying the premiums for almost 70 years! He told me he was finally ready to cash out the policy. I asked him why and he said he didn’t want the family to have to hassle with it after his death. So I got the VA on the phone and we started that process.