I heard my Dad laugh today

Today, the first day of summer, I heard my Dad laugh, which is odd as he has been gone for over five years. Well, maybe “heard” is not the right word. But I could feel his laugh and then I imagined him asking me with that big broad smile of his, “What’s the matter Jer?”

I was going through my parent’s music collection and after listening to Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, The Statler Brothers and Mitch Miller, I put in Nat King Cole. This was a CD I purchased for my parents in an attempt to right a wrong committed decades ago. As Nat started to sing, the CD skipped, and skipped and skipped again until I took it out to examine it. There was nothing wrong with it. Just like there had been nothing wrong with a record by the same artist.

My Dad loved to have music playing in the house. We grew up listening to Floyd Cramer, Percy Faith, The Ray Conniff singers, Fats Domino and many others. Dad even bought the Simon and Garfunkel Album “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” in 1970. He would put the record on the Hi-Fi (long before there was Wi-Fi) and crank up the volume on “Bye Bye Love”.

Back in the late ’60’s he had bought a record cleaner which promised to clean and preserve records for many years of listening pleasure, while at the same time restoring the record’s sound to its original quality.

The first record he chose to experiment on was one by Nat King Cole. Dad liberally sprayed the cloth with the cleaning solution and began to vigorously wipe both sides of the record. He had large hands and was able to get the job done rather quickly. After he was satisfied that the record had been properly cleansed of any impurities he placed it on the turntable.

The sound that came from the speakers was a sour, mournful moan. It was obvious: the record was ruined. It had been chemically altered and would never sound the same again. I, being a young vandal, recognized the opportunity.

“Can I have it?” I asked.

Without questioning my intentions Dad handed it over to me. I took the record and did something that I was forbidden to do, both by my parents and commonly recognized rules of decency. I grabbed a sharp tool and I scratched it. I scratched it deeply, numerously and insanely.

Then Dad read the directions which advised the user to let the record air dry before playing. I said I was sorry, but the damage was done. He threw the record in the garbage.

Now clearly, if Dad had read the directions, and if I had been less impulsive things would have been different. Because of that, and numerous other life lessons, I have learned to take things slower, more methodically; because some times – things get better when left alone.

One of my favorite quotes is “the serenity prayer.” As written by the author Reinhold Niebuhr in 1943: “God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”

I gave the CD a little cleaning for old time’s sake and tried it again. Nat King Cole sounded perfect. I could almost hear my Dad sing along.

“Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
You’ll wish that summer could always be here.”