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Author & Loudmouth

Happy Birthday, Crutch

Picture
Happy Birthday, Crutch

October 2, 2013

My father, Crutch, would be ninety-one today.  By the time he was approximately the same age I was when I graduated from college he had flown 35 missions over Germany as the pilot of a B-17 Bomber, which is to say there were a lot of differences between the two of us.  The Greatest Generation?  Hard call.  I’m hoping that generation is yet to come. 

My dad tried to teach me about relativity when I was nine, standing in front of our coal furnace removing “clinkers” from the fiery blaze.  In response to my asking if that fire was hotter than Hell, he said he didn’t know about Hell, but that if I were to fly to the sun – and avoid being disintegrated in the flames – then fly back and jump into that furnace, it would feel cold.  Freezing, in fact.  At nine, I didn’t digest the entire scenario, went to school the next day telling my classmates that you could jump into our furnace and be cold.  I came home armed with the information that the only person on the planet dumber than me was my dad, and a bloody nose.

But I learned relativity.

The Greatest Generation?  Maybe not.  I was thirty-five when I taught my dad to hug.  Turned out he loved it. 

The Greatest Generation?  I don’t know.  The same stoicism that kept them silent about their heroics in that war, often kept them from showing their loved ones warmth.  Ask them how they felt, they told you what they did.  When I walked back into my mother’s house after bidding friends and relatives goodbye following Crutch’s funeral, she sat on the couch staring out the window.  “He didn’t leave me anything to miss.”

34 years together and he didn’t leave her anything to miss.            

The Greatest Generation?  I think not.  It was all about men.

Yet, from him I learned the science of being human.  He was a genius at finding, and showing, cause and effect.  As a therapist, when I wanted to “cut the crap” with a client, I channeled Crutch.  But when I sought empathy, when I sought heart connection, I looked for my mom.

Our same-sex parent holds an interesting grip on us.  I carpet-bombed my dad’s life-long enemy’s home and land with Crutch’s ashes from the open window of a single-engine Cessna the day after his funeral.  It wasn’t a B-17 but his bombardier would have been proud.  Straight down the chimney and right on out into the pasture.  “My dad will be in your milk.” 

When I was young and prone to ill-thought-out actions, Crutch affectionately called me Lever.  The world’s simplest tool.  The more sensitive members of my family – mother, grandmothers – scolded him for bruising my fragile psyche, until he told them, and me, what a person could do with a lever, given one long enough and a place to stand.

So happy Birthday, Crutch.  I’m five years older than you ever got, and yet I’ll never be as old as you.  I raise my glass: May I take the good seeds you gave me and plant them in fertile soil, and may no person I ever loved say about me, “He didn’t leave me anything to miss.”

Your #2 Son



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  • Home
  • Contact
  • Biography
    • Press Kit
    • New Author Photos 12/2011
  • NCTE/ALAN 2013 Q&As
  • Crutcher-Price Blog
  • Crutcher Speeks
    • Update Bantleman/Tjiong
    • Nod to Gnuts
    • Hip-Hop
    • Good Day...
    • Gun Referendum
    • Free Neil and Ferdi >
      • Freedom!
      • A Summary
      • Joko Widodo
      • Another Open Letter
      • Open Letter
      • To All Canadians
    • Responsi-damn-bility
    • Whacking on Your Children >
      • Peterson Abuse Images
    • Piling On
    • Biopsy Biography
    • Walter Elevated Us All
    • Different Direction
    • Parenting Guidance
    • Goodbye, Ned.
    • Happy Birthday, Crutch!
    • Forrest Bird Charter School
    • Senator Portman
    • My Gun Rant
    • Maybe Now (Guns & Mental Health)
    • Support Your Local Pragmatist
    • So You Want to Be a Righter
    • Philosophy and Humanity
    • We Are Paterno
    • Boy Scout "Leadership"
    • Thoughts on McQueary
    • To Meghan Cox Gurdon/WSJ
    • India 2011
  • Author Visits
    • Presentation Praise
    • Scheduled Events
  • Crutcher Books
    • Period 8 (2013)
    • Angry Management (2009)
    • Deadline (2007) >
      • DEADLINE Defense Materials
    • The Sledding Hill (2005)
    • KOTMF (2003) >
      • KOTMF Extras
    • Whale Talk (2001) >
      • WT Defense Materials
      • WT Turning Japanese
    • Ironman (1995)
    • Sarah Byrnes (1993) >
      • SFFSB Defense Materials
    • Athletic Shorts (1991)
    • Deep End (1991)
    • Chinese Handcuffs (1989)
    • Crazy Horse... (1987)
    • Stotan! (1986)
    • Running Loose (1983)
  • Other CC Books
  • For Educators
  • Angus -- The Movie
  • Older News Briefs
  • Photo Albums
  • Scrapbook
  • CC Videos
  • Student Projects
  • Censorship
    • Chinese Handcuffs 2014 >
      • Chinese Handcuffs PRESS
    • South Carolina 2011 >
      • SC 2011 Article
    • Wisconsin 2010
    • Kentucky 2009
    • Delaware 2009
    • Indiana 2009
    • Six Rounds -- Oct 2008
    • To Mark -- Sept 2008
    • Delaware 2008
    • Ohio 2007
    • Iowa 2007
  • Banned Book Videos
  • Teens CAN Stop Censors
  • Banned Books Week
    • BBW Interview 2013
    • Oct 2011 BBW Article
  • Extras!
  • CC Press
  • Letters to CC
  • Movie News