About Daddy (2)

Daddy was a complex person, to me, at least, so when I wrote the first ‘About Daddy’, I put a (1) after it thinking I’d probably end up writing a series of ‘About Daddy’.
Daddy was honey and vinegar. At his most charming, he could charm just about anyone. I remember working for him in his and mom’s real estate office. Shoppers for housing would come in and Daddy was ready for them. He would see them getting out of their automobile to come into the office and say something like this: ‘These people coming in need a house and we need to sell them one!’
I agreed, of course, for selling those people a house meant more goodies for us kids (us ‘apples of his eyes’). Spoiled and rotten kids we were and we enjoyed every minute of it. Today I have my own spoiled and rotten child and love her dearly. I guess the beat goes on.
At his meanest, Daddy could be cruel and despotic. I am reminded of Maureen O’Hara, the actress, talking about John Ford, the movie director, on one of my DVDs. She said Ford could be the cruelest thing. Of course, we know now that he made the greatest, finest movies in U.S. history, so, I guess he got what he wanted or most needed from John Wayne, O’Hara, and his other actors.
Daddy could be intolerant. Sometimes he would be these things when you didn’t expect it; then, when you did, he’d go and be the opposite! That’s being complex, I think.
Once I was home after I’d moved to Atlanta and ‘broken free’. We were talking about long hair on boys and hippies, etc. Daddy said to me if I had any ideas of wearing my hair long (I hadn’t actually), I could forget about coming home. I felt bad, of course, and believed him. Later, however, I learned I shouldn’t have believed him. He was bark and little bite (He loved us that much.). He told a brother of mine that if he divorced, he could forget about us, the family, or him, the father. Well, my brother did divorce and what Daddy said turned out to be ‘baloney’. Life went on with all of us living, loving and fussing.