Snapshots from Father's Day!

Michael Hasenstab said...
My dad and Fred McMurray attended the same high school in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. My dad knew McMurray fleetingly (there was a age difference) and whenever I asked about McMurry, the answer I'd get was always "he was a stand-up guy."

My old man is still alive. He's 86 and let's himself into my house a couple of times a week; usually to drop off a magazine he thinks I'd like, bring a sub for lunch (at 9:30), or just talk. I'm always glad for the company.

Three years ago at Father's Day he gave me two brown mugs; plain, unadorned. I said thanks, of course. He said let me tell you about these mugs. Here's his story:

"In spring of 1942, I was fresh out of basic training for the Navy and home on leave. I knew that I was going to be shipped out for Guadalcanal that summer. Guadalcanal was going to be rough, a lot of guys weren't going to come home from that one.

"My dad had stomach cancer. Medicine back then wasn't what it was now, and we knew he had a hard fight in front of him.

"Either way, we thought the day I left would be the last time we saw each other on earth. My old man brought these two mugs home from work. (He worked as a brewmaster at the Pilot Brewing Company in Beaver Dam). We sat down at the kitchen table, filled the mugs, toasted each other and drank.

"sat there all night, an old man dying of cancer and a kid going off to war. We talked about life, our neighbors, how hard it was to scratch out a living as an immigrant, women, living a good life, how to beat my brother at sheepshead, and everything else we could think of to avoid talking about what was ahead.

"I left the naxt morning, on a bus for the Navy base in Waukegan. I hugged my old man, hard, before I got on the bus. he hugged back and said "I'll see you again.""

"I shipped out in June, 1942. The battle began in August, 1942. I received word in December that my old man had died.

"After the war I met and married your mom. A few years after you were born, your grandmother gave me these mugs to keep. Now they're yours. Go have a beer with your son."

I have them now, kept safe where they won't break, to be handed down to my son after I've passed.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.