A Few Short Stories

    Here's just a few short things I remember about dad. When we lived in Peoria, there was a desert nearby and it was fun to go to, but it seemed to be a source of trouble every now and again. John and his friend were playing there one day when they encountered a rattle snake, and somehow they knocked it out and attached it to a stick. Then they decided to bring it home. When they rang the door bell, I don't remember if it was locked or what was going on, Dad answered. He took one straight faced look at it and said, "Don't show that to your mom."
    I remember this reaction a few times, although I don't recall the exact events, but I always found it so silly that he was never surprised, and thinking logically in how not to get in trouble. He was always a child at heart, and a bit of the troublesome kind too.

    I remember one particular trip to the zoo, we were in a building looking at the reptiles. Leslie and I came to a very large snake that was perched on a tree branch several feet off the floor. We both looked at it in silence, but both thinking the very same thing, "Wow...That is some clean glass." Then right after we had that moment, Dad came up, stuck his whole arm, waving into the enclosure and said, "Hey look! No glass!" And there wasn't, we had a bit of shock at this realization, but the sign beside it said that the well fed snake, happily stayed on its perch.
      I loved how observant he was, and how almost everything became a joke, or a tease. I feel like sometimes we all need a little more of this in our lives.

Here's some short things I wanted to share;
He always had a brought me home a little something from any trip he went on. It never mattered how old I got.
Whenever he wanted to try something, he just went out a tried it.
He always had chocolate hidden on his person in church. When he looked sad, or bored...or if HE was bored, we all suddenly had chocolate.
He bought me the most expensive Flute in the store, because we wanted me to have the best, but I think he mostly thought the gold mouthpiece was awesome. So he convinced me to choose that one.
He bought me breakfast every morning when he drove me to seminary, he used to say it gave us a chance to hang out, and made sure I ate.
There was always a project on the floor or coffee table in the living room, with a documentary playing on the TV. Especially on Sundays.
One time he stole my notebook during sacrament meeting and designed a sail boat. After he built that the next thing he designed in church was a missile launcher. He never intended to build it, but it was a fun puzzle for him to solve.
Every now and then he would include me in on his mischief. Like opening a hole in the bag of halloween candy in the back, where mom wouldn't see it. Having Scifi marathons when mom worked that night, and let me try his random new hobbies.

There will always be those little things that I will never forget.

Charity