My dad has the black sweater on...
Here are some photos of my parents taken thirty years apart and ones of my dad with his steam engine and friends...I'm delighted I can post these on my blog...Dad worked for the railroad for many years...He became an engineer about the time I started grammar school (1942)...He drove an old steam switch engine for the Chicago People's Gas Light and Coke Company...Then he had 17 miles of track inside a very large yard and his engine would move the coke cars wherever they had to go...By the time I entered high school they had switched from steam to diesel powered engines...But then they got rid of their coke cars and sold only natural gas...In huge storage tanks...This created a dilemma for my dad since he was only a year or so from retiring at 65...They asked him if he wanted one of two jobs they could offer him which were ...1. Watching over the boilers or 2. Being a weed picker around the tanks...My dad took the boiler job since he had worked out of doors all of his life and the winters in Chicago were pretty cold...But...He got so bored watching boilers and reading the daily newspaper from front to back he requested the weed picking job..
In high school the guys would occasionally ask one another..."What does your dad do for a living?" I remember one kid say ,"My father doesn't do anything....He's a cop!"...And so my answer was," My father is the highest paid weed picker in the city of Chicago"...My dad got a kick out of that answer and told his friends down at George's bar...
I have thank my ex neighbor (Delores A.) an e-mail friend,who lived directly across the street from me in Chicago for the picture of mom and dad all gussied up at maybe at a wedding reception...Dee now lives in Florida and found the photo amongst some others recently and sent it to me...
God bless you Dee!
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Oh yes...don't let me forget...Dee's parents were my God parents...Thanks again Dee...
