Some of my loving memories of my Dad,
Last time we visited Mom and Dad he called me Max…. just after he said that, I saw that grin of his, you know the one. He was pulling my leg. Just as soon as he said it, he looked over to Mon and said that’s John isn’t it. Barb my wife said "that's John," that was his little joke, he just loved to do thing like that. He also loved his golf, traveling, and being out and about or with his gadgets.
He seemed to never forget a persons name and their family ounce he had met them. We were at Disneyland. Our families first trip there with my young son Paul. Just then Dad takes a couple of steps awayfrom us and goes over to a man that I didn’t recognize. Then he said" how have you been Larry? How’s your wife Judy and your two sons (by their names I might add)." The man was just as taken back as I was. He didn’t have a clue. Dad refreshed his memory," Boy Scouts remember? We went camping to Dead man’s Point together". That was at least 14 yrs earlier. Dad never missed a chance to greet a person he knew. He did that all the time.
Dad also liked to be spontaneous. When I was about 7yr old the first trip I remember was to Yosemite. The trip started one evening when Frankie Polizzi, Dad s cousin, said" let go out and get a cup of coffee" Dad said, "okay let’s go," Frankie said" go pack some things because the coffee shop is in Yosemite." Well we drove most of the night and the next day we were climbing up Half Dome. That trip was almost our demise at an early age. The hiking trail that goes up to the top of Half Dome was not marked as well marked as it is now. We took a wrong turn and missed the switch back of the actual trail. There we were going along a path that got smaller and smaller. Soon we ran out of trail and look back to see the trail we missed with not much below us but air, we made a u-turn and went back to the right trail. From that moment on I climbed around the top of the rock dome on my hands and knees. Marc my brother still has the 8mm film of this; OH my gosh, I was so scared of being that high. I survived though and took up flying later in college and on my first solo flight in a Cessna trainer Dad insisted I fly over our house on in Hacienda Heights. I did and Dad ran out with a big white sheet waving it madly at me, while I was wagging the wings of the my airplane.
So many memories, these stories are a few of the ones that stand out in my mind along with many many more. We will all miss him.
Forever remembered and love
Lovingly,
John Burgio