Hi guys. Its been a crazy week and I haven't had time for much. I didn't get a chance to write last night, so I am going to post this tribute to my Dad that I've been working on for awhile. I was going to post pictures of him and edit this a little bit....but here it is in all its unedited glory. And its kind of funny in the context of my Monday religious post too!!!!
My Dad, who passed away in 1998, believed in God....yet the Devil had a special place in his life too. Here's a few examples.
When I was about 3 or 4 years old, the family took a trip to the mountains. We were cruising the Blue Ridge Parkway at night when something went wrong with the car. He grabbed his flashlight and popped the hood to check it out. The girls waited patiently in the car for awhile but I started getting antsy, so my mother let me out to watch what he was doing. I went up to the front of the car and stood quietly. He was fiddling around underneath there when suddenly his flashlight began to fade. He grabbed it, shook it, and the light came back strong. Then it immediately began fading out. Impatiently he grabbed it and shook it again. It came back strong and began to slowly fade. Suddenly, in a fit of pure hot-head anger, he grabs that flashlights, yells in frustration "GO TO HELL!" and chunks the flashlight over the side of the mountain as hard as he could throw it....down into the never-ending blackness below. Frightened by the outburst, I went crying and screaming back to my mother. She opened the door and said "What's wrong honey?" and I cried "Daddy threw our flashlight to the Devil!!!!" All I remember hearing after that was a whole lot of laughter. Since then, whenever a household appliance dies, it is customary for family members to announce "Its about time to throw that thing to the Devil!"
But Dad had a relationship with the Devil long before I came along....and when he was a rookie cop with the Durham Police Department, he actually got publicity for it.
He was a brand-new cop and riding his first late night-shift with a veteran. Their first call of the night was from a frantic old woman who had opened her front door and her little dog got loose (this was 50 years ago, folks, in the South....people called the cops over things like that). So Dad and the veteran grab their flashlights and head next door to the cemetary calling for the dog....who had the unfortunate name of "Devil".
"Here Devil! Come here, Devil!"
Shortly thereafter about 5 more cop cars show up....due to the numerous phone calls from neighboring houses who reported that strange men were lurking in the graveyard invoking the presence of the Devil.
Big laughs were had by all and one of the cops even reported it to the newspaper, so a small humor blurb made the next evening edition. I would take a picture of the article for you but unfortunately my sister has it.
