The final story from Dad's Eulogy

GIGANTIC GOLDFISH

Dad loved to fish with his friend Bill MaDinn.   One winter morning, he and Bill gathered up all of their fishing gear, and headed to the Snake River. It was snowing like crazy – but that didn’t stop them.  Their plan was to fish for steelhead.  However, after a bit of time, they realized the steelhead weren’t biting, so they changed out their lures and went after the fresh water bass.  Now Dad really liked the bass better anyway – so that was fine with him!   As they caught their bass, they put them on stringers and hung the stringers over the side of the boat.  There was no need for a cooler in the boat, the water was icy cold and kept the fish just fine.  At the end of the day, the stringer of bass went into the cooler, the cooler into the car and home they came.  

Kris and I were quite young, early elementary school age, and were of course curious to see the fish that Dad caught.   So, we opened up the cooler and looked in.  Six shiny silvery bass were laying in the cooler.   Neat!  Oh, wait a minute – did that fish just blink?  It did!   Dad – these fish are moving!  They’re alive!  The freezing cold water of the Snake River had kept the fish alive.  We asked Dad what was going to happen to the fish and he tried to carefully explain that he would clean them, and that we would then have a fish dinner.

Now Kris and I would have none of that!  Kill the fish?  Never!   So Dad, not wanting to upset us, did what Dad did best, he came up with a solution.   He filled the bathtub up with water, and dumped those fish right in!   To heck with goldfish in a bowl, Kris and I had big silver bass in a bathtub!  I think Dad figured the fish would be dead by morning – but nope, stubborn bass, when we got up they were still happily swimming around.  Kris and I headed to school, happy in the knowledge that the fish were safe swimming around in the bathtub.  While we were at school, Dad cleaned and filleted the fish.  When we returned from school, we were told that the bass just couldn’t live in the bathtub water, and that they had died.  To us, that was sad, but at least Dad hadn’t whomped them on the head and killed them.   

That was my Dad.

Story #5 from Dad's Eulogy

FUNNY FINGERS FARR

Over the years, I think I can count on one hand the number of times a repairman ever came to the house.  If he was fixing something, Kris and I were probably underfoot.  Dad would patiently explain what he was doing, in terms that we could understand.   I can remember many a time out at the lake when Uncle Karl would be trying to fix something – he might have spent hours trying to get something to work.  Dad would come over and just start turning this or pushing that and “Voila!” it worked.  Karl would get so upset with Dad.  He’d ask Dad what he did to fix it and Dad would just say “I don’t know”.  Karl gave Dad the name Funny Fingers Farr – and it stuck.  

Story #4 from Dad's Eulogy

MR SMOOTH

Everything Dad did, he did in a relaxed, calm manner.  Golf was no different.  Dad had a swing like Ernie Els – relaxed, smooth, effortless.  Joel loved playing golf with Dad, and Joel would laugh and sometimes say that he felt like a Shank-a-potomus next to Dad.  He remembers playing with Dad and how often the guys they would be paired with would comment on what a smooth swing Dad had.  Eventually the gents in the Men’s club gave Dad the nickname “Mr. Smooth”. 

Mr. Smooth wasn’t just on the golf course – and Mr. Smooth wasn’t always so smooth.   Mom and Dad loved to dance.  But early on, Dad just couldn’t get his feet to move.  Dancer he was not.  So, knowing Mom loved to dance he agreed to take Ballroom dance classes.  They’d head down week after week to practice and learn new steps, and soon they were gliding around the floor.  I always loved watching Mom and Dad dance together because like everything Dad did, it looked effortless.  Even this last April at Travis’ wedding, as hard as I know it had to have been, he and Mom effortlessly glided across the dance floor.