Quoting My Dad

Denzel “Denny” Dawson

(1921-1997)

And finally, a few Dennyisms:

The wind blew and the shit flew, and there you stood.

If bullshit were music, you'd be a brass band.

You can go to Hell for lying as well as you can for stealing.

The Old Man on the ¨I wants¨, People in Hell want ice water and they don't get it.

Dad could be a bit profane, but his heart was always in the right place. He was a WWII vet, and a fiercely loyal American. I was a typical 60's teen so you can imagine how the discussions went whenever the topics of Nixon or the Vietnam War came up. Mom's nightly line at the supper table seemed to be, "Do we have to go through this again? You had the same argument last night!" These 'discussions' usually ended up with the Old Man getting mad and storming out of the kitchen and me, equally as mad, heading for the back door. Dad held down two jobs while being extremely active in the VFW and the Boy Scouts. There are four boys in the family with a 13 year span between my youngest brother and me. Dad was the scout master for all four of us. One summer when he took the troop to the District's week-long camp out, one of my brothers and a friend from the troop served as camp counselors. The tradition was for camp staff to have supper each night with a different troop. When Jon and Dave showed up for the nightly meal with Dad's troop he asked them to say grace. Being goof ball teens they piped up with, "Rubba dub dub, thanks for the grub. Yea God." That was too much for the Old Man who, I don't think ever said grace or a prayer on his own. He blew up with, "Now God damn it, what'n the Hell kind of prayer is that!" As I said, he was a bit profane, but his heart was in the right place.