byDaddy, Pops, Paterfamilias, Father, you managed to convince me you were nuts at a very early age. I was, how old?—ten—when you dragged the whole family, me, Mom, and baby sister Way Up North one summer for a vacation in a state park in New England where the mosquitoes were the size of small birds, and when the gutsy, he-man adventurer types (unshaven, in flannel shirts, just like on the covers of those magazines you used to read) saw you driving in with a suburban station wagon complete with small kids and baby sister’s teddy bear in the window, they came to the same conclusion I did, probably with more reason.
Paterfamilias,theyYou said it had to do with your work. You were never clear on exactly what you did for a living. I wasn’t sure even Mom knew. This time you seemed to work for w
