Memories of Father #1 (flash memoir)

By Carlo Morrissey

I know little about my father
A man who remained as strong as the steel
He molded in furnaces whose heat rivaled hell
Who could drink all day, party all night
A man’s man who grew up fast
Leaving home not more than a boy
For conservation camps clearing Vermont forests
Boxing a bit, learning poker and hardening his heart
All preparation for a thirty-month tour of Pacific islands
Evicting Japanese warriors from New Caledonia to the Philippines
Years later the war showed in startled responses when woken
He said little of the poverty of his youth
Less about the horrors of war
Understandable, solace found chasing beers with whisky

One July day when I was eight
We walked a few miles to an amusement park
Crossing the old Lake Quinsigamond bridge
My father stopped, smiled slightly pointed north and said,
“See that bridge at the other end”
I nodded at a fuzzy faraway line spanning the water
“When I was a kid, I swam from there to here on a dollar bet”
It seemed both incredible and true
I wish we had more days like that.