A Voice from the Past
Last night, Bryan spent his evening digitizing some old cassettes tapes that had been deteriorating for his mom, one of which was a speech his dad gave years and years ago when he was an insurance salesman. It was over an hour long, and showed why Dad was a good salesman. He was so personable and knew how to get the crowd going. And he brought personal touches into the salesmaney jargon he was there to “pitch” to the room.
What was odd for us, listening all these years later, was to hear these personal stories told to a room full of strangers – stories we have never heard before. Stories we would have loved to have heard from Dad. But most conversations with my father-in-law were about the weather or football. I am not sure if he was just tired after all those years of working so hard and being broken by it, or it was easier to say those things to a generic crowd.
But Bryan and I both shed some tears, that we’ll never be able to ask him about any of it.
Either way, it sure was nice to spend an evening with Carroll again.
You May Also Like
This article has 9 comments
Comments are now closed.
((((((((HUGS))))))))) to both you and Bryan.
That’s too bad, but lovely.
Thats cool – bittersweet.
every once in a while danny’ll pop his late father’s answering maching tape in, and we get to hear his father asking us to leave a message. never fails to bring a tear to his eye.
very sweet.
How amazing to have something to remember him by. I keep kicking myself in the butt to get my parents to record and write their histories but they need even more urging. Something like that is so priceless for posterity!
What a treasure. Truly.
I totally understand… sometimes I wish I could just ask dad about his salsa recipe. He always asked me if I wanted to help make it – but I never did. I wish I had.
How wonderful you have those tapes. (((((HUGS)))))
I remember walking into my parents’ house and hearing the radio, or so I thought. I listened a little harder and realized it was the sound of my late grandma playing the organ (she loved that damn thing). She started singing and it was all over. I was sobbing.
Funny how things hit you.