The Popcorn Stand: Just like my dad

This past Wednesday, November 10, would have been my dad’s 87th birthday. He died four years ago just shy of his 83rd birthday.

So Veterans Day, November 11, is just a little more poignant for me, as I’ve obviously thought about my dad just a bit more over the past few days. Of course I think about him every day, but just a little more during this time of the year.

When I attended the Veterans Day Buck Shaffer Band-a-rama on Thursday, I thought about how my day played the trombone for the Lindsay High band and how I played drums for the Strathmore High band. I can tell you the Strathmore High band is a lot better and bigger now than when I was a member.

Maybe this sounds a little self-serving since I did absolutely nothing and Jim Kusserow did all the work, but I was just as proud of Kusserow of all those students who performed on Thursday as he was. And I’m sure every one in attendance was just as proud as I and Kusserow were. Kusserow also made that point Thursday, noting how much this community supports education.

My dad was also a veteran. His service wasn’t particularly impressive. He was basically a cook in the dead of winter in Alaska while serving in the U.S. Army. But my dad served his country as proudly as anyone else.

I’ve written before I don’t know if this is the greatest country in the world. I think at times we’re the greatest country in the world. I think we can be the greatest country in the world. I think we’re the most unique country in the world.

So if you would make an argument that we’re the greatest country in the world it’s not because of our freedom or opportunity or anything like that. There are plenty of other countries that have those things. It’s because of our uniqueness.

And I’ve also written before how accomplished people are drawn to this country from their countries and I always ask them why they came here. They never seem to know themselves as they talk about the opportunity this country provides as a reason for coming here even though they really had the same types of opportunities in the country they came from. I guess it’s just our uniqueness that brings them here. I dunno.

But on Thursday during the Veterans Day Parade and the Band-a-rama, this truly was the greatest country in the world. At least in Porterville USA it was.

But that’s not what I wanted to write about. As those of you who choose to read this Popcorn Stand, you know I tend to ramble and go off on tangents.

Back to my dad. I love those Progressive commercials with that soothing-type facilitator trying to guide first-time homebuyers into not becoming more like their parents and really not succeeding. Because I find myself becoming more like my dad every day.

Again I want to note I love my mom more than anything else in this world and just as much as I love my dad, so just because I don’t write about her doesn’t take away from that fact. I’m just more like my dad.

Like with technology. I’ve written many times before about my frustrations with technology. I’ve written before about how a few months before his death, my dad found this technological marvel at a yard sale and he was like a kid in a candy store.

It was a Sony Walkman. It had never dawned on me my dad had never really had any use for a Sony Walkman before. The radio he had in his garage was just fine. And even though he talked about using that Sony Walkman in his garage, he kept using that radio.

But on Veterans Day I found myself just like my dad — like those first-time homebuyers in those Progressive commercials — as I too discovered something for the first time and I was like a kid in a candy store.

I’m sure these things have been around for a while but for the first time I was introduced to Frito Scoops. Have you seen these things? They’re amazing. I mean you can dip these things in your chili beans or dip or whatever it is and actually have all the stuff stay on your chip while you put it in your mouth. Whoever the guy was who invented this should get the Nobel Prize. I mean this is truly the greatest thing since sliced bread even though as George Carlin once said sliced bread isn’t so great. (“It’s bread and you slice it”). It also begs the question what was the greatest thing since sliced bread before sliced bread?

I think my dad would have liked those Frito Scoops.