Go Retire Psychiatrist

I was never in the military, but I tried once ages ago. I guess I’m lucky it didn’t work out. Memorial Day always makes me thing about my father, John Amos. Once upon a time, I would have said our relationship was either non-existent or difficult. But I’m not going to dwell too much on that today because I’m fast approaching the age he was when he died 24 years ago. Because of my tendency to use humor to distract me from certain troubles, when I think of Dad, I often think of lines from a Men in Black movie:

Agent J: I used to play a game with my dad called “catch”, except I would just throw the ball and it’d hit the wall, ’cause he wasn’t there.

Agent K: Don’t bad mouth your old man!

Agent J: I’m not bad mouthing him; I just didn’t really know him.

Agent K: [looking around the restaurant] It’s not right…

Agent J: You damn right, it’s not right. A little boy needs a father.

I guess that encapsulates it. OK, now that joke is out of the way. Anyhow, I have other thoughts about my father, some of which are evoked by old photos. Because this is partly connected to Memorial Day, I’ll just point out that Dad left High School in the 11^th grade to enlist in the Navy during World War II. He received an honorable discharge after serving four years.

I have a photo of Dad in his Navy uniform when he was in Waukeegan, Illinois. I saw another picture of him while he was in the Navy on a beach somewhere with a few other guys. He was in swim trunks and was brandishing a tommy gun. He told me he loved that tommy gun. I don’t have that picture.

I have couple of other old snapshots. In one of them he’s holding a tiny baby. He has a big gap-toothed grin on his face. I think the baby was me. Another snapshot is him with me and my younger brother, Randy in our back yard in Mason City. I’m on Dad’s right side. He called me his number one son, mainly because I was the firstborn.

I talked to recruiters many, many years ago. The only point to make about it is that I think they knew I didn’t want to be a soldier. But they never said it out loud. They did make it clear they wanted Randy to enlist, although it didn’t happen. He died of cancer 26 years ago.

I don’t know anything about what Dad did while he was in the Navy. But maybe all I really need to know is that he served his country.