Catching my first fish with my dad...him helping us build a huge igloo in the snow with bricks molded by a dish pan (at least, it felt huge to me at the time!)...his kindness to his aging mother-in-law (my beloved grandma)...buying donuts on Saturday morning to try to get 5 kids out of bed to start our chores...going out to the country to cut a Christmas tree each year and setting up the old Lionel train with us under the tree, the only time we got to play with it. Some memories can be painful but at heart he was a decent and caring man. He loved to tell stories and loved to talk, except about his time in the Marines in World War II. I think he carried some baggage that he would never share with us. After his funeral my uncle told us a story of what he faced as a teen fighting on Iwo Jima. It's nice to recall the fun moments...he was a good dad. We didn't always have a lot, but he made sure we had enough.