In My Fathers Eyes

By the look on his face I could tell that he was interested, and I smiled softly at him. It made me feel good that my dad wanted to help me out. I've never met a man who hated questions so much in my life. But he knew that I loved hearing about all the things that he had went through during the decades. It was still kind of early in the morning but I wanted to catch him before he left for work. Yawning, he took a sip of his daily cup of hot tea, lit a cigarette and hand gestured me to proceed.

"Okay Mr. Eackles; let's start from the beginning." I semi-oredered him as he shook his head grinning at me and mumbling, just loud enough for me to hear, "Seems like a good place to start." I felt like I wanted to know everything. Only because I knew that the times he'd grown up in were so much different than mine. He'd seen the 50's all the way up through today. "Tell me about your high school days. I know they're a stretch from mine" I asked him and he let out a small "Ha." before replying "1968 compared to 2010... it's sort of impossible to believe that. I didn't think i'd live to see the day.. it's almost scary. I can't believe how different High School is now compared to back in the 60's. Everything was way more open. Cops didn't regularly patrol the school, and teachers weren't always on you about everything." He shook his head almost as if he was dissatisfied by the way public high schools handled themselves. "Even the transportation was different; High school seniors drove the busses. Now that was funny. They even got paid to do it too. Boy those high schoolers through the elementary school kids for a loop." My dad's shoulders bounced as he laughed to himself. I asked him about how the cars were different. He suddenly got a look of major interest. I thought to myself, here we go. I swear the man could go on for hours, possibly days, about cars. "The typical Muscle Car was the GTO. We marked off sections of the road and drag raced GTO's, and 57 Chevys. Then the Ford Mustang came out in the middle of 1963. Everyone went absolutely crazy for these cars. The girls usually had the Mustang Convertables while all the guys played around with the engines inside of theirs and made them as loud as can be. I had always wanted one, and I still do." Before I could ask another question, he butted in again and exclaimed, "Wanna know something mind blowing?" I nodded. "Gas was only 25 cents a gallon." Bewildered I thought of all the times I had spent almost 30 dollars on gas and how much I could have saved if it were only 25 cents a gallon. I almost wanted to cry.

When I asked him about his grades in school he sighed, "If you failed, you failed. There was no such thing as a "No Child Left Behind" program; which is probably why I failed the third grade and had to repeat it." Just then, I wanted to see what all he remembered from elementary school. He began his rant once again. "Now you know my life growing up was way different than yours, Zo. I was a Virginia boy growing up with parents divorcing and re-marrying. I felt like all I did was move around." He cleared his throat and asked me what I wanted to know. I said "Everything. In as much vivid detail as you can remember." being the total smart alec that I am. His eyebrows raised up on his forehead and he shook his head laughing at me, placing his hands behind his back and stretching. "I remember the principal would litterally beat us with the board of education. It was wooden, about 3 feet long, and had holes in it. I think they were there to make more impact when we got beat." We shared a laugh. "There was none of that Referal, suspension, expulsion stuff. You got the beating and you learned your lesson."

I asked him to talk to me about the first things he remembered as a kid. "The first president I remember was Eisenhower. He lived somewhere in Pennsylvania and he loved to golf. My mother liked him a lot, but I wasn't really concered with politics. I remember the very first Polio injections. Boy were we all scared out of our wits. You could hear the kids screaming when they saw the big needle used. It sounded and looked like it was enough to freak any 6 year old out so when I had to get mine, you can only imagine. Of course after we all got ours, then they came out with a sugar cube that you could take orally to prevent Polio instead of the huge needle." He crossed his arms and I asked what every child had during his time. "For you, it was Barbie. Every girl had a barbie. For me, every time you walked out of the playground at recess, everyone was using a Hula Hoop. I kid you not, every child had a Hula Hoop. They ranged at about a dollar for one. The guy who came up with the Hula Hoop must have been a millionare. I had one, and I was pretty good at it. Until my little brother decided he wanted to break it. I was furious." "When I lived in Buckton, Virginia, we went to school in a one room schoolhouse." I cocked my head to the side and exclaimed "Really?! Like movie style red and white schoolhouse?" He nodded and said "With the bell on top and everything. Now get this, the boys and girls had seperate bathrooms, but they were wooden outhouses outside of the schoolhouse. In the winter, we were heated by a coal stove." I was almost bewildered. I really only thought that was on old movies. Taking notes on all he had said, I smiled realizing how different his life was. Before I had time to ask another question he jutted in, "All the schools in Virginia were named after southern leaders. All the names have been changed since then." He sipped his tea and then said, "Just thought it might be an interesting little fact for your interview." I laughed at him, thinking about how genuine he was. I asked him what the scariest thing from his childhood was. "I was around 16 I believe. Living in Hampton Roads, Virginia when the Cuban Conflict went down wasn't the best, seeing as I was right next to a major air base. The Cuban Conflict was the closest we had come to nuclear war. I remember hearing all the aircrafts and the air force getting things ready, testing and practicing maneuvers. I remember JFK being president, and being scared for my life that my house was going to blow up."

After High School was over, my father began to tell me about his life in the Army. "Being drafted at 19 was a little scary, I'll admit." He said. I Loved hearing him talk about it though. "I was happy that I didn't get sent straight to Vietnam. They sent me to Frankfurt, Germany after i had completed all my training at different Forts across the United States. It wasn't until i had gotten to Fort Lewis in Washington that I went to cooking school through the army. There I had found my passion for cooking. I had two MOS's. My first was infantry, and my second was cooking." I asked him where he stayed and he said "I lived in what they called the barracks where I worked. When your mother came to Germany after she graduated, we got an appartment down the street and I walked to the Fort." I wanted to hear his daily routine, so i asked what happened on a daily basis in the Mess Hall? "The mess hall had a master menu posted up as soon as we walked into the kitchen. The men ate Breakfast, Dinner, and Supper. All of which would change daily." I asked him about all the things he saw in Germany. "Well let's see here, i got 30 days of leave per year and I served 2 years over there. I Saw Heidlberg, Amsterdam, and Holland. Your mother and I always rode the trollys going shopping. They had the best food over there." When asked his favorite food, he said "Ox Tail Soup" Yummy.

We both sat back in our kitchen chairs and looked at eachother with warm eyes. It felt good to know more about my dad's past. I looked into his tired, weary eyes seeing all of his memories inscribed in the wrinkles in his dark weathered skin. I knew he had gone through a lot. Just then, he got up from the table and said he'd be right back. When he returned to the table he handed me a chain and on it, were his dog tags from the army. "Keep these." he told me. "Maybe one day when you're 62, you can look back on your life story when you're talking to your kids, and remember mine. That's the true comparison."