Happy Fathers Day! Part 5

I have my Dad to thank for my love of books. What greater gift to give someone? But there's more! When I told him I was reading books about Iceland, he put me on the Icelandair mailing list. The first time an Icelandair brochure arrived in the mail, I laughed derisively. Why would I want to go to Iceland, for heaven's sake? Why would anyone want to go there?

I did look through the brochure, though, with all the glossy color pictures. It started to look kind of interesting.

The next brochure arrived, and I didn't laugh ... I looked through it carefully. I was beginning to change my mind. I started thinking that Iceland would be a really good place to travel to. I signed up for a contest, and fervently hoped I would win the Iceland Air trip for two. I didn't win, but for my birthday that year, my always generous Dad gave me enough money for John and I to take that trip to Iceland. We eventually decided to make the money stretch to a trip for four, and Gabriel and Peter went with us, doubling the family enjoyment quotient.

My love for Iceland keeps growing. I keep signing up for contests, and hoping I can return to Iceland. And I always keep a grateful heart, that my Dad gave me my love for books and my love for Iceland. Thanks so much, Dad.


Happy Fathers Day to all Fathers, with thanks for their many legacies.

Happy Fathers Day! Part 4

You never know what you will pass on to your children. When children are young they often model the behaviors they see in their parents. When they are old enough to determine their own interests, sometimes they run the other way.

In my case, it's surprising to consider how many of my Dad's passions have become a part of my life. We've already seen that Dad influenced my life with books. In addition, I've inherited his love of travel, music, food (although he won't often be found in a kitchen, and I will), sports (Dad and his wife enjoy spectator sports with an amazing intensity and frequency--GO BEARS!--, while I merely enjoy them from time to time),exercise (I mostly partake of exercise on my own, while Dad was a track star at SRJC and UC Berkeley), education (I'm an educator, while Dad holds the record for having accumulated the most credits of any student in the history of Santa Rosa Junior College). And let us not forget the accordion! In our family, that most wonderful musical instrument skipped a generation: Dad's accordion is now being played by our daughter.


This series is about my Dad, but I can't help but mention the first image that comes to my mind when I think of my husband's influence on our children. Picture a little kid (it could have been any of our children, but most likely was each of them), maybe three or four years old, sitting in a chair slowly and thoughtfully turning each page of, say, PC Magazine, pretending to read it. Before they were old enough to read at all, our children were carefully turning the pages of a technical magazine that didn't have interesting pictures, just because they wanted to be like Dad.

Happy Fathers Day! Part 3

In keeping with his love of books and storytelling, my Dad made sure that family stories wouldn't be forgotten by writing a book that told stories from his parents' lives and his own childhood. He published enough copies for each of his family members. I'll never forget the thrill of discovery, reading new stories about Dad's life, remembering ones I'd nearly forgotten, finally being able to see the timeline of the different events in his life, and understanding how they fit together.

It all started with Jim and Suzanne, my brother and sister-in-law. They encouraged Dad to get started, and got him in touch with a local company that helps people write their own life stories. A writer interviewed Dad for the book, and her journalistic skills elicited information from Dad that he probably wouldn't have thought to include. She transcribed the interview, and helped him edit the final product. A real testament to her ability is that the narrative retained my Dad's voice, in a conversational, natural tone. We were all extremely pleased with and proud of the final product, which included wonderful family photographs. If you are interested, the company is Personal History Productions.

This wasn't my Dad's first foray into recording family history. Just this week he sent me a tape from 1968 (or earlier?), in which he recorded me and my brothers reading stories out loud. I haven't heard the tape in decades, and he no longer has a reel to reel player. But I have access to one, and I'll find out how we can digitize this old 1/4" magnetic tape, to give it new life.


There are many ways in which you can immortalize family stories by writing them down or recording them. Take a look at the nonprofit LifeBio, The Remembering Site, or anonther nonprofit, StoryCorps. Any of these organizations will help make the task more manageable, and give you the steps you need to get started on narrating, writing or recording your family history. Or, you can do what my brothers and I did a few years ago. We simply took a tape recorder, and spent a session conversing with my Dad and asking him questions, prompting memories and funny stories. But, you have to DO something with the tape afterwards! (I haven't--yet.)

Happy Fathers Day! Part 2

What does Hajji Baba have to do with Iceland, or my Dad, you may ask? Although my genealogically inclined husband has been unable to document my Icelandic roots, through my Father or anyone else in our family, my Dad is a master of the oral tradition. Not only did he read stories to us, he told us stories. No, he didn't relate the Icelandic Sagas, but with equal improbability he related stories that had their basis in far-away Persia, or what is now Iran.

Dad didn't exactly recite the story of Hajji Baba, however. Instead, before or after a bedtime story, he might launch into his own fantastical stories regarding characters named Hajji Baba, Hammurabi, and Aachu (sorry, I don't know how to spell this one). Strangely enough, these characters lived in the light fixtures of our home! I took these stories at face value, and at the time didn't realize that any of them were based on fictional or historical figures.

I came across a truly lovely edition of Hajji Baba (The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, by James Morier, illustrated by Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge, Random House, 1937) for $5 in a used bookstore somewhere, and bought it. And once again, my bookshelves contained an interesting clue. As I looked through it today, there on the last page, "About this edition ... ," I discovered that it was designed in collaboration with the Book-of-the-Month Club. My Dad may have owned the very same edition when he was a kid. What do you think, Dad--does this bring back any memories?:


Finally, my readers are, no doubt, asking themselves why I didn't put an apostrophe before the "s" in Fathers. There is a reason! After deep contemplation, I decided to be nonconformist because I liked the mental image of many happy Fathers, all across the country. In other words, it isn't just a day belonging to each Father, in which you hope he will be happy ... rather, it is a day when the Fathers are Happy--all of them, everywhere!

Here's to taking the apostrophe out of Fathers Day, and making it "Happy Fathers" Day, not happy "Father's Day."

Happy Fathers Day! Part 1

I fell in love with Iceland through books. Bill Holm, Halldór Laxness, the Sagas. But how did my love of books begin?

I have early memories of my Dad reading to us. We had a big armchair that was large enough for Dad, me, and my three younger brothers. Every night we would all pile into that chair, and Dad would read to us. I remember children's books: Winnie the Pooh, Doctor Seuss. Every Christmas Eve we read The Night Before Christmas. Most of all, Dad read us lots of classics.

The way I remembered it, Dad subscribed to the Book of the Month Club for our nice, hardcover editions of the classics. I still have those books, so after writing this I pulled Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island off the shelf to have a look.

Was I in for a surprise! I expected to see copyright dates in the 1950's and 60's. Instead, I found that two of the editions I have were published in 1930 and 1941. My Dad hadn't purchased them for us, my Grandfather had purchased the books for my Dad! I have at least seven Heritage Press books that Poppy purchased, both from The Limited Editions Club and the Junior Heritage Club, over some fifteen years.

My Dad as a youngster.

I learned the following from this site at the University of Texas at Austin:

... George Macy (1900-1956) - published fine, illustrated books in limited numbers for member subscribers. Designed and illustrated on fine paper by leading figures in the graphic arts, most titles were classics ...

More information on the Macy editions can be found in A Heritage Press Retrospective, by Michael C. Bussacco, in BookThink. Several of the books I own have really stunning illustrations, including Gulliver's Travels (illustrated with woodcuts by Fritz Eichenberg) and Idylls of the King (illustrated by Robert Ball).


Another "Dad" tradition was going to Books Inc. ("The West's Oldest Independent Bookstore"), in Santa Rosa. Dad loved going to Books Inc., and he loved taking me with him. We went often, and we stayed a long time, browsing slowly through all the displays. I don't remember that Dad always made a purchase--sometimes he would buy me one book--but I do remember that any birthday or Christmas brought with it wonderful books from Books Inc. I remember the good smell of the pages.

My Dad loved reading to his children, yet I seldom recall seeing him reading books on his own (although in recent years he frequently listens to books on his iPod). So, while my Dad is more likely to be found reading a magazine, newspaper, or internet article than a book, he has always valued books and finds them interesting, and he passed his love for books, and bookstores, along to me.

We often grow up modeling our parents' behaviors, and my Dad wasn't the only one in the family who loved books. My Mom always had a book that she was reading, and if it was a good one she might not hear you if you tried to talk to her. It was my Mom who introduced libraries to me, starting with the children's room at the old, ivy-covered Santa Rosa Public Library, and later taking me to the Sebastopol Public Library each week.

Santa Rosa Public Library

Between the dual influences of my Dad and my Mom, becoming a librarian was a natural choice.