I have only a few memories of my Dad.
I often tell others when asked "What's something that no-one knows about you?" I explain how I got to go on the submarine with my Dad one day. I got to go eat breakfast with him.
I remember him asking me if I was Mickey Mouse.
I remember telling him that ashs was mis-spelt, that he needed an 'e' (This was very neatly painted on the top of a small aluminum trash can that my dad kept ashes in from the hibachi pot to use in gardening.
I remember him telling us that we needed to 'police' the yard - and he explained what that meant to me...picking up random leaves and trash and tidying up the hose and put away any thing in the yard that didn't belong there.
I remember my dad teaching me how to plant a rose. How to make a hole with a hill inside for the roots to grow down and put fertilizer in the hole.
I remember my dad often had a camera in his hand.
I remember my dad asking me to lick up the pickled pepper juice and thinking that was funny.
I remember holding a flashlight on the engine of the VW and it being something to do with a timing belt.
I have his ruler. Its such a simple treasure. Its just a piece of plastic, but it has the "LCDR E.L. Pollmann USN" in the raised label tape on it. I look at it and always think of the military influence in our lives growing up.
