Meet My Pops

This list is far from complete, but it starts to get at the essence of my dad through my eyes. Here are just a few of the things I loved (and miss) about my dad.

• He was the life of every party he went to. He loved to make people laugh.
• He and my mom were high school sweethearts. They had a great marriage full of good times.
  
• He loved to tell stories about his glory days in high school.
  
• He loved to watch any movie or television documentary about animals. To this day, the Notario family favorites are Old Yeller, The Man from Snowy River and The Wilderness Family.
  
• He was definitely a beer guy. The image of him that always comes to my mind is the one I would see when I would pull in our driveway. He's standing in the garage with one of his buddies and has a beer in his hand. He always had to keep beer in the fridge for this very occasion. He couldn't get much done in the yard without someone stopping over.
  
• When I was playing in sporting events, he would make flailing hand signals to me from the sidelines. I would flail my arms back at him because I often had no idea what he was trying to tell me.
  
• He loved nothing more than to sit at a bonfire all night with his friends and dogs.
• He loved to watch Michigan football. When he got sick, Lloyd Carr and Bo Schembechler both signed a football helmet for him. It was really special to him.
  
• He wasn't a religious guy, but when he said something "bad" he would look up and say "sorry lord." I always thought it was cute.
  
• His handwriting was silly. He wrote really slowly and used lots of funny curly cues. I got accused of forging his signature in fourth grade because the teacher didn't believe my dad wrote like that.
  
• He had the same group of friends since middle and high school. Crazy bunch of guys...
  
• He couldn't say no to anyone. People would call him to do things and he would kindly tell them no problem. After he hung up the phone, he'd shake his head and say "Why the hell did I say yes to that?" Unfortunately, I adopted this lovely quality too.
  
• If we got bumps and bruises, he used to tell us to "spit on it and rub it in."
• He was a wrestling coach to a lot of elementary and middle schoolers for 25 years. I loved to watch him coach because he was so excitable, but really patient and caring. My brother coached too and very much takes after him.
  
• He was kind to animals. He used to raise homing pigeons when we were little. He said he was going to do it again someday but didn't get the chance.
• He was a nervous nellie. My mom says that if they were at a party or family gathering nobody had to pay attention to what their kids were doing because they knew my dad was keeping track of everyone.
  
• He called himself a factory rat. He was loyal to Ford for 27 years and was very much looking forward to being able to retire.
• On Saturday afternoons, after relaxing on his Lazyboy, my mom would pull in the driveway from work and he would jump up to act like he was cleaning the house. He would start unloading the dishwasher and I would start vacuuming. We had the routine down.
• It took a lot to make my dad mad but when he finally did raise his voice you knew you had pushed things too far.
  
• For some silly reason, he was really self conscious about going bald. He never went anywhere without wearing a baseball hat so I bought him one that said Father of the Bride to wear at my wedding reception. He really loved it.
  
• He loved to listen to classic rock. He would always play the drums on his dashboard while he was driving. He always used to quiz me on who sang the songs. To this day, I can't really listen to Journey or Fleetwood Mac without tearing up and missing him like crazy.
• When my brother would get too cocky, my dad would wrestle him and put him in really painful moves like the guillotine. He always said, "Remember, you'll never be stronger than me!" It always made my brother laugh.
  
• He drank too much one Saturday and let me and my friend paint him up in full makeup. I'll have to find that picture and post it someday. You could do or say anything to him when he drank to much.
  
• He cared very much about providing for my grandma and grandpa. He did anything to make sure they had what they needed.
  
• We watched Saturday Night Live together and laughed at the same stuff. We were the only ones in our family who got it.
  
• Every year he would get a bonus from work. He would always give us a gift of money to play with and write a really sweet message in a card about how proud he was of us.

Ah, I could go on and on but I suppose I will save more memories for another post. It's so nice to remember...