With Long Hair Like Women

I love my dad.

I have many, many fond memories of times spent with him, especially as I grew older and was able to appreciate his life and all the accumulated wisdom that he tried to impart to me.

Like any great teacher, he told stories to teach life's lessons.

Like any obtuse student, I often failed to take his meaning.

I have lots of "Daddy Stories" and enjoy sharing them with whoever will listen.

One of my favorite stories demonstrates his propensity to speak indirectly to a situation and my own tendency to miss the point entirely.

I was a teenager in the mid sixties and like many other "rebels" I was growing my hair out, or rather combing it over my forehead and into my eyes (don't ask me why, it was the sixties). My father hated this and told me a story.

It seems that during WWII, Uncle Peewee (one of the famous "Yankee Uncles") was on leave in San Francisco. During his roamings about the city, he wandered into a bar. And in this bar, according to my dad, were men who had "long hair, like women."

That was the story. Being smarter than my father at the time, I dismissed this story as irrelevant and pointless.

Years later, I recalled it and went, "Heeyyy!"

Not to worry, Father.

I would never hang out in a bar in San Francisco.