K-R-A-P

This is one of my favorite pictures that elicits one of my favorite childhood memories. That is a picture of me and my dad on a slide at a ‘special’ park. I’m not sure why the park was so special, maybe because we had to drive to get there. I don’t know.

Anyway, from what I remember at the ripe old age of three, is as me and my dad were sliding down, my dad’s jeans got a hole in them. For a three-year-old, that was the most funny thing that could ever happen and it just tickled me to no end. And for the 38 years or so that I’ve been looking at that picture, it makes me smile every single time.

As for the park itself, the last time I remember going there is when I was in sixth grade or so, and my dad brought me and my brother to the ‘special’ park to tell us that he and my mom were getting divorced. They ended up getting remarried (TO EACH OTHER) two and half years later. So, why did they get the damn divorce anyway? I think it was because they thought me going through puberty and starting Jr. High wasn’t stressful enough.

As for the title of this post: K-R-A-P. Yeah, another great dad story. The four of us were sitting at the kitchen table having dinner. My dad starts to tell my mom that after dinner we should go to the K-R-A-P, and then he starts making a circle with his finger in the air. My dad was being real clever with spelling where he wanted to go, and knowing that my brother and I could spell, he was using some sort of code. My mom was NOT getting it. So he just keeps spelling KRAP, and making a circle in the air with his finger, over and over and OVER. My brother and I were laughing because my dad wanted to go crap after dinner. It was hilarious. And….

It was getting him NOWHERE.

All he wanted my mother to do, was reverse the letters (hence the circle motion in the air).

K-R-A-P   =   P-A-R-K