I brought in a photo of my father taken later in his life. I chose to convert the original color photo to black and white be of an Ansel Adams quote I remembered. He said that “black and white defines the soul of the object while color merely illustrates it.” I feel this photo clearly defines my memory of my father at that point in his life.
My Dad
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| Floyd C. Merzke, Sr. |
This is the perfect picture of my father, Floyd Carl Merzke Sr. His smile, warm and friendly, showcases who the man was. Always quick witted, with a smile and something funny to say that would make you smile, most people found him unforgettable. When I look at this picture floods of memories sweep over me. I remember those coke-bottle glasses. I would always marvel at them whenever he would ask me to clean them. How could he see out of such think pieces of glass?
Then there is his mustache. He never had a mustache until he was in his sixties. One day my son Andrew, dad’s only grandchild, asked him to grow a mustache. Dad said he’d give it a try. That was at thanksgiving dinner and by Christmas he had a thick full mustache that made him rather proud. My brother was dumbfounded. He’d been trying to grow a mustache for years, but it was thin and wimpy compared to the thick growth Dad had produced in a month.
Dad’s cane was purchased at the Kutztown Folk Festival and was made from a sarsaparilla root. At first he didn’t want to use it. I believe it was a matter of pride with him. However, we convinced him to think of the cane as a sympathy stick; something that would cause folks to hold open doors for him or give him a place to sit. This made him much more receptive to the idea. Mostly he used the cane as an attention getter for Andrew. For that purpose it worked very well. It gave him that extra reach whenever Andrew was slow to respond to a request.
Then there is his Civil War hat. Andrew found the hat in a shop in Gettysburg when he was about eight years old. He wanted it the minute he saw it. He bought it and loved wearing it all day long. Later that evening it occurred to him that his grandfather should also have a hat like his. We drove back to the store only to find it had just closed. While we were waiting in the car, Andrew banged on the door until the proprietor answered. Explaining that he just had to have the same hat for his grandfather and that we were only in Gettysburg for the day, the store keeper let him in. The problem was that Dad needed the same size hat as Andrew and there wasn’t another hat of the same size anywhere to be found. The proprietor told Andrew to go get his grandfather and they would make something work. Andrew got Dad and the proprietor took the next size larger hat and made leather shims to fit under the band to make it fit. He explained that Andrew’s head was still growing and that when he outgrew his hat, he could switch hats with Dad, pull out the shims and they would both have a hat that fit. The hat in the picture is Andrew’s original hat. The plan worked.
