Alicia and her dad taking a selfie at mom’s birthday dinner in Lincolnwood, Illinois
My 75-year-old dad and I drove a 14-year-old gold Mercury Sable station wagon from Chicago to Los Angeles. In its teenage-length car lifetime, it racked up only 80,000 miles. Dad gifted it to me instead of the car dealership that offered him a mere $1,300.
Some time in its early years, the car acquired the nickname “The Pimp Mobile” for reasons still unknown to my family, other than that it is gold and my dad, the primary driver of this vehicle for many years, has a gold tooth. But he is no “pimp.” In fact, he might be the opposite of this — a gentle, quiet, overly sensitive and often times withdrawn man who was known as the class clown of his high school, dad has been living in the suburb of Skokie with my mom for the past 30-plus years. Dad retired about eight years ago from a government job, and since then his routine has consisted mostly of staying up until 3am watching either the news or National Geographic climate change specials in the dank, heavily air-conditioned basement, or transfixed to the screen of his laptop, tepidly trying his hand at online gambling.
Read more at http://www.craveonline.com/culture/896973-crystal-paradise-time-dad-watch#bv0RhfWRvYpc4Zrf.99
