The In-Laws

                                           The In - Laws

     There is an old saying about relatives - "you can't choose your relatives ", it pretty much means that you are stuck with the family you are born into, you can run away, disown them and even tell everyone that you were adopted but in the end they are still your family forever.
     Now to paraphrase the above saying  (or maybe I am coining a new saying ) " you can't choose your in - laws " opens another subject that is talked about almost as much as blood relatives. Depending on who is doing the talking there can be much disdain about in - laws or praises. Let's take my in - laws for instance, they were at times a barrel of laughs and at other times caused me to cringe and repeat over and over " I love my wife, I love my wife ".
     When I first met Linda I was not interested in her family, she was the object of my desire and in that I wore blinders. Linda was the oldest of three girls, Eileen was three years younger and Vicki at two years old was fifteen years younger and after all these years I still say that I not only had the pick of the litter I got the best of the litter.
      Linda's mom 's name was Gladys her maiden name was Wagner and she was from upstate New York, I called her mom. She was nice and easy to talk with, she kept a clean house and the girls were always clean and neat, she was fun, considerate and caring. The house and kids were her domain and she took both seriously seeing to it that they went to school and church on a regular basis. Mom was a quiet woman, she went about her day cleaning, cooking, sewing - all of the things a housewife of the times did on a daily basis. She played the guitar and sang. I liked her from the start and enjoyed her company.
    Mom was always a deeply religious person, she was raised a Lutheran and attended a Lutheran church when I met Linda but some time in the late 1970's something changed. The Lutheran church no longer satisfied her needs so she started looking around. She settled on the Pentecostal church and although her beliefs were strong she became born again to the point that she would sometimes frighten Linda. She softened some when Danny was born, he made her smile and laugh.
     Linda's Dad was definitely a horse of a different color, there was a television sitcom back in the 1970's called All In the Family, the main character was Archie Bunker, we used to jokingly tell people that they used Dad to form the character of Archie.
     Tom Dingman was a man among men as they say, he was king of his castle and all who entered therein, the world revolved around him and him alone. What can I say about Dad, oh where to start, how about his politics or his strange sense of humor, his views on hippies, Jews, Germans and Negroes (as they were called then) could create a discussion lasting into the wee hours of the new dawn.
     Dad was a patriot who served as a Navy radio operator in WWII, he never saw any action but was involved in the search for the missing planes that disappeared into the shadows of the Bermuda Triangle off the east coast of Florida. In later years he twice served as Post Commander for the American Legion. Dad was also a benevolent person and gave freely of his time to many civic organizations such as the Masons, Kiwanis club, Shriner, VFW, American Legion, Lions Club and was a founder of the local Ham Radio Club who would help out with communications in case of an emergency. He was also a racist who had strong opinions about people who didn't think like him, in particular the previously mentioned Hippies, Jews, Germans and Negros, add to the list Catholics, Orientals and Republicans.
     Linda loved her father but at times had difficulty understanding him. Once when he was ranting about the Jewish race she asked him if he didn't believe in Jesus, he quickly stated his belief in Jesus  but continued his rant on Jews so Linda said but Daddy Jesus was a Jew, he had no answer for her. Another time his rantings were about Germans and again Linda interjected and asked him why he married her mother for she was a German, again he had no answer.
      The night we announced our engagement he drove me back to the base, Linda rode along with us. Nothing was said on the trip to the base but Linda told me later that on the way home Dad told her how he thought she should stick around after high school, get a job and help out the family.
     Dad was big on family alright, especially his brothers and sisters, he was close to his brother Raymond who had taken over the family bottled gas company. Raymond was a playboy, he had a couple of ex wives and several young girl friends, he was always dabbling in new adventures and businesses. Dad took after Raymond in the world of business when he was laid off from his job at Cape Kennedy, he started a company that cleaned and installed phone booths for Bell South in So. Florida.
     His business venture into phone booths led to buying a bottled gas plant in Interlachen, Fl. which Mom operated as she raised Vicki. He would play games with Raymond over the gas company, Raymond required cash when Mom needed more gas so Dad would write him a check which quite often bounced - he would laugh loudly when he would tell me about it. The phone booth business actually did pretty well and the income afforded him the opportunity to do other things such as buy into a service station, become a half partner of a shrimp boat and start up a rent a wreck business. I don't know what happened to the businesses but they didn't work out. One thing I do remember is that he was contacted by the U.S.Secret Service about one of his rent a wreck cars, seems the man who rented the car drove it to Washington and threatened the life of the president, the car was impounded.
     The man was always thinking, coming up with new ideas, new ways to make money. Most of the ideas were off the wall and even the best of them didn't work out, the phone booth business was the most profitable but Dad had a way of letting his money slip thru his fingers.
     Some time during the 1970's Mom and Dad sorta went separate ways although they never divorced, for the most part he lived in West Palm, Fl. and Mom and Vicki lived in Interlachen, Dad would come to Interlachen and or Jacksonville a couple times a month but for the most part though they were still married it was pretty much in name only.
     Dad and I had a some what odd relationship, we sorta tolerated each other. He was the one who got me into the phone booth business, had I followed his lead I would not have stayed with it. Years later as he lay on his deathbed I heard him tell Linda that he thought I had turned out to be a pretty good guy, until then he never complimented me on anything and we were often engaged in discussions where we expressed strong opposition to each other.
      Linda's parents were like many of their generation, the greatest generation that ever lived. They worked hard, carried on traditions, didn't accept change very well and raised the next generation just as their parents did before them and Linda and I did after them. There are other stories I could tell and maybe someday I will. Although we clashed every now and then I remember them with fondness, I liked them and was proud to call them Mom and Dad.