Just Between Us Friends

And I am sure you won't tell anyone this.

I often worry about what my late father would think about my daughter in law.

You have to remember dad was a Korean War vet and he knew at anytime there could literally be a million Chinese People's Liberation Army troops come towards him.....And they were not in a good mood.

Now dad was a different man the last years of his life, like Tommy Lee Jones said in "No Country for Old Men," " I sorta thought when I got older, God would somehow come into my life...." 

In dad's it did. He was a pretty good man. ( I often wonder now about life if the Arminians are right, you can "fall from grace?")

But every once in a while, the old "dad" came out.

I know he was upset when they found out my now wife had Germanic relatives.

I don't know why?

Her "Germanic" grandfather won both my parents over one night when he stopped by the funeral home in Vidor for visitation of a grandparent of mine who had passed shortly after we started dating .
 Her grandfather was dressed in what would be a $2000 dollar suit today and was accompanied by a just as well dressed man.

They literally "classed up the place." As mom still says to this day.

They had been to a Baptist men's deacon/pastors meeting and looped out of the way through Vidor on the way back to Mid-county. And stopped by to pay respects.

I missed the visit, I had gone home to shower and change. I had volunteer to " sit up with the dead" ( You know, I did it for all 3 of my grandparents who were alive in my lifetime, my dad's dad passed before I was born) I have no fear of the dead. I miss the old tradition. It is no longer done. Liability reasons for the funeral home leaving strangers there all night. 

Then again, my wife's mother came out to meet my parents very shortly after we started "keeping company."

I am sure her mom was wondering what type of "Vidor White Trash" we were, and my parents asked them out to the house after a musical mom and I were involved in they came out to watch. ( They had the coffee pot and and coffee cake ready to go....Not normal Vidorians of the 70s, my mother has  graduate degrees. I don't think more than 20-25 people I graduated with in 1975 of a class of 400 actually have college degrees now...)

But I worry. I'll never know, but I wonder what he'd think...