Thursday, January 6, 2011

Family Man

I was flicking channels and stopped on a video station....a country station and the song playing was called Family Man...a video of a man who works when and where he can to make a dollar for his family...it could have been written for Gee. He would leave at 4am and be gone untill 9pm, leaving one job to go to another. His job as a Man was to earn the money, mine was the kids, thats a another story, for another time.

Family means different things to different people, to Gee family was everything. Food, clothing and shelter that was his job, and he did it so well.

When he was 13 he asked his father for a quarter for lunch money for school, knowing he had just gotten paid,"get away for me boy, I got no money". That was the last time he spoke to his father for many years. What he did was find a job after school in a grocery store. The "Old Jew" let him live in the back room as long as he stayed in school. Which he did until he was 16 when he lied about his age and joined the Army.

For 32 years the Army was home. It took care of him and later let him take care of his family. When asked why he stayed in he would always say, "I like to eat and all I had to do is keep my mouth shut and my opinions to myself."

After leaving the Army, nothing much changed all he knew was work. At 72 he was still a sports official, not high school anymore but the little guys who always were his favorites. He was a man who took care of his own. His kids had everything the needed, most of what they wanted and a true example of what a Family Man was.

He was so proud of his children. All 5 went to college, all 5 responsible adults,a corporate business man, flight attendant, a data processor, a computer programer and a someday social worker. What a great gift the world got from just a common Family Man.......

1 comment:

  1. Robin - your writing is a gift to us all. You need to keep doing this. All of us need to know these 'stories' about Gee - who we all loved dearly.

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