Marine Face

“What does your Dad do for a living?” He’s an Association Executive. “Oh. What’s that?” It’s a non-profit group that brings together members of a particular industry that they all represent. These associations organize conventions, offer certification and educational opportunities, publish industry magazines, and lobby on behalf of that industry. “Whatever?”

My Dad had a clipping he thought described what he did. I’ll scan it.

He would always cut clippings of people he admired, articles of our friends who have succeeded in some great way or inspirational bytes.

I finally opened the Wood Box. He had kept clippings in there for as long as I can remember. My Dad gave a lot of speeches and said he used these for levity in long spaces of dry material.

First thing on top of the pile is his passport, his picture from 1980 with full Marine Face, looking directly at the camera. I said earlier that my memory appears to be factually incorrect and I always thought he was born in 1928, but his birthday is clearly Jan. 11, 1927. The look on his face in his passport is the kind of look he would give me for doing something stupid like getting his birthday wrong for about thirty years or so.

I pick up his passport and four clippings fall out of it making my first foray into the Wood Box easy.

“The greatest mistake you can make is to be continually fearing that you’ll make a mistake.” -Elbert Hubbard

“Most of our suspicions of others are aroused by our knowledge of ourselves.” -Raymond Massey

“Nothing seems so tragic to one who is old as the death of one who is young, and this alone proves that life is a good thing.” -Zoe Akins

The last you’ll have to check the scan…an Alabama truism.