Nostalgia: Letters from my Dad

My dad was an avid letter writer before he discovered the internet.  After that, he acquired an email account and started writing flowery emails and forwarding as much spam as he received.  He was a prolific letter writer throughout his life, though.  He insisted on writing personal letters to creditors, department stores, the postman, and the accountant who did his taxes every year.  He came from that generation when people communicated beautifully with a pen and a piece of paper.   And he had the most beautiful penmanship. 

In the 70s, we lived in San Diego.  My dad worked for various hotels in the southern California area, some of them all the way in Los Angeles.  I remember traveling to Seal Beach on the weekends to visit him at his hotel when he was the GM of the Catamaran Resort.

In 1980, his mother (who lived about 10 minutes away from us in San Marcos) was diagnosed with colon cancer, so my dad left the long hours of the hotel business and worked as a car salesman in Escondido so that he would be available to help take care of her.  After she passed away in 1981, my dad started looking for work in the hotel industry again.  In 1983, he took a job as a Divisional Manager for Hilton Hotels, in Houston.  

My mom and I (and her mother who also lived with us), stayed in San Diego for almost a year while we sold our house and I finished my freshman year of high school.  My dad had an apartment in Houston, and traveled home as often as possible.  The commuting life was hard on all of us that year.  He called frequently, but I didn't realize how often he wrote letters to my mom.  Here's one of the more entertaining ones that I found.

(and first of all...let me say that I can vividly remember that camel hair jacket he wore with his brown slacks and brown tie.  He was a snappy dresser, for sure!)

4/24/84    

Hi!

Here's a quick note on my famous stationery again.  It's a very lazy day today.  Fell asleep on the loveseat last night, awakened at 4am...thought I'd lost my legs from the knees down (draped over the arm rest.)  This somewhat upset me and when I sat up and swung my body around to sit up and hopefully stand up, the lower portion of my legs which I thought were missing, were there but asleep - all by themselves and refused to wake up!  Thus with the rest of my body awake, I remained in an upright position for sometime until with great reluctance the lower limbs began to join the circulation function and with great PAIN and colorful language spoken, through clenched teeth, we stood.  Made coffee and wondered why we were so stupid!


In our conversations since arrival and departure to/from El Paso, I'd forgotten to tell you of my greeting.  The enclosed photo will give you a good idea.  Yes, the little darlings had this 7 foot bunny greet me and escort me through the airport and across the street to the hotel.  Of course, I tried to make believe he didn't exist, however, the smiles on the faces of the other folks in the terminal betrayed my hope.  As you can tell from this, it's silly time!

Hope your day exceeded your expectations!!

Love you, 

Me

My dad loved to tell a story and could spin one out of the most mundane things.  He was goofy and tried to find humor in everything, even his legs falling asleep on the couch!  It has been so much fun today to read these letters and be able to "hear his voice" through them.  I miss his silliness and his sense of humor.  Thanks for indulging me in my reminiscences.