Fathers and sons -- and grandsons, too

I never will forget him

For he made me what I am 

Though he may be gone

Memories linger on

And I miss him, the old man

  --"The Old Man," sung best by John McDermott

Happy Father's Day to all you fine fellows out there. To commemorate the occasion, here are a fatherly item and a grandfatherly one.

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My older son drives a truck for a living, and is behind the wheel up to 10 hours a day. So what does he decide to do for his vacation? Drive to Virginia. I don't get it, but then there are many things about my kids that I don't get. (And I'm sure they could say the same about me.)

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I am thrice blessed! In addition to going to two preschool plays within a few weeks, I went to my grandson's preschool graduation. That's right: graduation ceremonies for preschoolers, with T-shirts and visors in lieu of caps and gowns. What next: graduation ceremonies for the babies in a hospital nursery? Anyhow, when called to receive his diploma, Maxwell decided to play the clown, staggering up to the teacher while making monkey faces. Not overly amusing.

A kiddie book with a moral for grownups

How lucky can one man be? Thanks to my grandson, I've been privileged to see two preschool plays within a month! Today's offering was "The Rainbow Fish," a story of a beautiful but selfish fishie who soon found himself isolated because of his selfishness. But when he began to share his beautiful scales, he was surrounded by friends. We should all pay heed. (By the way, my grandson, Maxwell, admirably portrayed an orange fish. But when the rainbow fish shared a scale with him, Max kind of lost interest in the play because he was quite busy playing with the scale.)

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The other day, I re-watched "Taxi Driver," released in 1976.Robert DeNiro was never that young and cab fares were never that low.

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Being born. Growing up. Going to school. Graduating. Working. Marrying. Raising children. Burying your parents. Retiring. Dying. Nine down and one to go.