Observations on quality time with my 84 year old father, day -7

• He may be a health nut but he likes his cake. Not gooey, frosted kind of cakes, but dry, dunkable cakes. You could call it a coffee cake. Growing up, he would stuff the cake in a tall glass, pour coffee with milk over it and eat it with a spoon. It’s not bad actually. A biscotti will also do and so will scones.

We were in a steak house and he started the meal by asked for a scone.

A scone.

In a steak house.

(Insert Eye roll here)

• I sent my sister some links of supported housing for the elderly in Los Angeles and she was sure he’d seen them before. Even if he did, he couldn’t have understood how to use them. There’s all kinds of search filters. It must be terrifying to be old, alone and broke. If you’re a narcissist and you’re alienating your remaining family, you’re really on your own. This is when the “funny” stops.

• He really liked Sly and the Family Stone. Both the music and the clothes. He used to repeatedly ask, “What ever happened to Sly?” He’s stopped asking so that may be another memory that’s slipped into a pothole down memory lane (that’s a Randy Newman line, not mine. I give credit where it’s due.) He also loved the Locker dancers. They were a dance troupe that often appeared on Soul Train. Fred ‘Rerun” Berry was a member and I think my dad liked him the most. I guess it gave him hope that my mom could get buck wild in spite of her girth. I think I was listening to Black Sabbath at the time…

© Curt Weiss 2015