Daddy Dearest -- Part Two

First off, before I begin this part, I wanna say that before my dad became a teenager, he and my grandma watched my grandpa pass away. It was a traumatic experience for the both of them, and until she died, when she wasn't in her work uniform my grandma only wore two colors: burgundy and black.


When my dad was my age, it was tough for him, by his own admission, and Aunt Margaret confirms this. He and grandma were not seeing eye to eye on a lot of things, and he felt like a stranger in his own house. It wasn't any better at school either. He was called names like faggot and queer because of his fair skin, blond hair, and shy, sensitive demeanor. It got to the point where he quit going to school altogether, and he'd spend his days in the park, playing his guitar in front of whoever would listen, or at the theater listening to symphonies and concerts.


The day my dad turned teen, my grandma gave him her most prized possession: her treasured guitar. It was as if at last she figured out that a) that she didn't have much time left and b) how serious my dad was about music.
In order to fund his music (and, he also admits, to meet girls), he got a part-time job at the local spa. I think he got the job to prove to the guys at school that he wasn't gay. He started working out (something he still does) and there, he says, he met his first girlfriend, Erin Frio. He also says he never actually talked to girls (he was too shy to), that he'd compose a song for them.


Dad scrounged up the money from his part-time job to take painting lessons downtown without his mom's knowledge, but though he liked to paint, music was his first love. He redecorated his bedroom in his favorite color, much to his mom's chagrin.

Come to think of it, when it came to dad, there wasn't too much that grandma was happy about. Her only son had long since dropped out of school, and he was spending his days playing guitar for pennies and pleasure in the park and folding towels at the community spa, all the while honing his strategy for winning the hearts and minds of women all over town. But of course, she didn't know that part yet.