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Originally Posted by Llarry
While this photo could go in the "cool pics - vehicles" section, I think this older crowd can better appreciate it.  |
I survived “owning” a Pinto! Well, I wasn’t exactly the one who owned it. My dad did. I “learned” to drive a manual with that car. This was way before I was old enough to actually drive. He would operate the clutch and I would shift the gears. We had a good time doing that!!
By the way, I haven’t posted about this. My dad, Arthur Francis “Bud” Lovell passed away on March 25th at 87 1/2. We had a lot of fun together the last two years and three months. I brought him to Chicago to be near me. I posted about this part. He was supposed to live in independent living, but the day we arrived in Chicago he had a stroke. He didn’t have any paralysis, but he did have weakness and loss of fine motor skill on his left side and he lost vision to his left. It didn’t affect his eyes, but it caused his brain not to process the left side of the vision his eyes were relaying to his brain. The main thing it did was cause a significant reduction in his cognition and pushed him into dementia. He lost almost 100% of his short term memory and he couldn’t remember the things he needed to do to take care of himself and keep himself safe, so I moved him into an assisted living facility with a special memory care unit.
He didn’t lose his long term memory and he could still comprehend the majority of things. If you ever heard us having a conversation you might never have guessed he had dementia. I spent part of almost every day over the last two years with him.
But, his biggest claim to fame was his incredible repertoire of 40s and 50s music. He knew the lyrics to an amazing number of popular songs from the 50s and from the movies from the Golden Age of cinema. And he didn’t just know the most popular lines. He knew all of the lyrics and he would sing them. His tagline my whole life was, “that reminds me of a song” and EVERYTHING reminded him of a song and he would sing it. He never lost his ability to make those connections. His favorite was Hank Williams “Say Hey Good Lookin’!! Whatcha Got Cookin’? How’s about Cookin’ Something Up With Me?!” And he would sing every verse!! After two years every resident he lived with knew the song and when they would see him coming they would say, “Say Hey Good Lookin’!!” He and I sang a lot together over the last two years. He was an absolute joy to spend time with!! He was a man of deep faith in Jesus and he was always ready to share his faith!! I will always be thankful he was my dad!!