MEMORIES OF MY FATHER ON FATHER'S DAY

Dad, foreground, at a birthday party for Becky, 2017. And yes, unless he used Grecian Formula without my knowledge, that was my Dad's hair color a month from his 84th birthday.
Photo courtesy of Pam Hall

A question just popped into my mind a few minutes ago: Did any of the classic horror actors (Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Sr. or Jr., Vincent Price) ever get an Oscar nomination? And what does this question have to do with anything? I'll get to that.

I should have started with wishing you all a Happy Father's Day. And I'd like to take the opportunity to remember my Dad, who passed away September 23, 2019, at age 86.

I grew up in Fullerton, CA for the first 9 years of my life. Then, he seemed to disappear. A month later, Mom sent me to stay with his parents in Skull Valley, AZ (a lot smaller than Fullerton), who took care of foster children at that time, meaning I went from being an only child to second oldest of a half-dozen, three of those Native American. (By the way, I never knew my maternal grandparents.) 

Dad moved to Skull Valley around Easter time, and after landing a job as a radio announcer/DJ, he worked at different radio stations, mostly at KVIO in Cottonwood. He did leave that station for Needles, CA, followed by Kingman, AZ (2.5 months total between those stations) and then returned to Cottonwood. (The person who took his place at KVIO didn't stay, so Dad returned there after a 6 months absense). One memory I had was riding with him as we moved back to Cottonwood, and he told me that I had nothing to do with his and mom's divorce (which had never crossed my mind, but I might be in the minority of how most kids deal with a divorce). 

Those who knew my dad late in his life knew he showed movies at the Senior apartments he stayed in from '07 to '18. That was part of our lives. While in Fullerton, Dad and I saw movies together from those more in my interest (e.g. "Hey There, It's Yogi Bear" and "Yellow Submarine") to those more his type (such as "Fantastic  Voyage" and "The Day The Earth Stood Still." This continued through till Becky and I moved from California in '84. The radio station employees had a pass to Cottonwood's movie theater/drive-in. While he was married to my step-mom, we went to movies a lot, but he would take the older of my two younger stepsisters to John Wayne movies since she was a John Wayne fan, and he was excited when "Cinderella" came to the drive-in so he could take my youngest stepsister. (BTW, my step-mom had four daughters with a 12 year gap between the second and third, and I fit right in the middle of that gap.) One year, Dad got me a book with all the movies of Boris Karloff (and a John Wayne book for my step-sister). Since then, I've seen several movies of Boris Karloff. Which is where the question I asked came about. I did once ask him who was the better actor between Karloff, Lugosi, and Chaney Jr. (and Dad's answer was in that order).

One thing I remember is he was encouraging me to do what interested me. There was only exception: When I got home after armed-services day my senior year at high school interested in the military, Dad did his best to nip that in the bud fast. (I know my grandfather on Dad's side was too young for WWI and too old for WWII; Dad would have been the age for the Korean War, and I don't know why he wasn't drafted, unless it was an educational deferrment.)

I remember Dad telling me how the movie version of a couple of Agatha Christie Stories ("And Then There Was None" and "Witness For the Prosecution") varied from the original stories. A couple of years ago, I read her "Mousetrap and Other Plays," where the introduction said she didn't like some of the renditions of her stories because... they stayed too close to the original. In that 8 play collection, three were based on Poirot mysteries except Poroit wasn't in any of those plays. I came to the conclusion that it was Christie who changed the endings of those plays. I wish I had the chance to ask Dad about his opinion on that.
 

Don't remember the year, but I think it was in winter!