Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site

Family Stories, Photos and Videos-Past and Present

Mary Lou, what was your Dad like when you were a child?

My Dad owned a grocery store when I was growing up.  The store kept him very busy, he worked there almost every day of the week from 8:00 in the morning until 11:00 at night.  He developed diabetes as a young boy and had to eat 3 full meals a day.   He came home for lunch and dinner and was home for an hour or so for each meal.  I remember my Mom and Dad going out to the Elks on a lot of Saturday nights so he must have let himself leave work early on those days.   He liked to have fun on a Saturday night.  I remember waking up more than once to a band playing downstairs. They had shut the bar down and he’d invited everyone back to the house!  He loved his family very much and would do anything for us.  He gave me a dime when I was in high school and venturing out on my own.  He told me to always keep a dime with me (this was for a pay phone before cell phones) and call him if I needed to.  He said he’d come and get me anywhere at any time I needed him, just make a collect call.  He told me this his whole life even after I married and moved far away.  He’d take us on a two week vacation every summer.  He loved sports and took us to baseball and hockey games in Portland.  One summer when I was 10 (1959) we drove from Toledo to Chicago to an Elks convention.  It was great to see the country and the sights along the way, when we were in Chicago we got to see Queen Elizabeth who was also staying there.   My sister, Mardean was in the Shriners Hospital in Portland for 5 months because of scoliosis.  I was very lonely.  I remember Dad coming home from work on his lunch hour and playing hop scotch with me to cheer me up.  I also remember him driving me to school and he’d always say “see you later alligator” and I always would say “after while crocodile” that made me feel special.  In 1964 he drove Mardean, her friend Marianne, and me from Toledo to Portland and back (3 hours one way) to go to a Beatles concert.  He set in the car in the parking lot the whole time we were at the concert.  I hope he at least had a good baseball or basketball game to listen to.  I’m really glad he was my Dad.  He would do anything he could for me and I always felt very loved and protected.