Middle/High School Daddy, Round 1

Primary Age Daddy

Obaachan always brags about how smart her Takao was in school. In elementary school, the school was divided into achievement levels, and the groups met on different floors, the lowest group being on the first floor and the highest on the fourth. Of course Takao shot right up to the fourth floor ahead of all his cousins, even the older ones. Apparently his older cousin was having a hard time in math and was getting tutored, and Takao was there and would sit in. When the cousin couldn't get it, the tutor would turn to Takao, who would invariably give the correct answer. This of course made Obaachan's in-laws upset, and got his cousins in trouble for not doing as well as Takao did =).

Daddy was a bit of a loner, but everybody liked him and he always had a lot of friends.

Daddy loved dogs. He had all sorts of dogs over the years. Mom always heard about Shiro, which was a little white spitz.

Obaachan ran a few restaurant/kiosks in her day, and had soft-serve ice cream. I'm sure Daddy got his fair share of them =).

I think we all know the pig story, but here is Mom's retelling for posterity's sake:

At school, Daddy didn't recognize what a pig was in some kind of homework or classwork, and the teacher may have ridiculed him a little bit. This, of course, made Obaachan unhappy (to say the least), and being the excellent mother that she was, they got on a train and went into the city to the zoo in search of a pig. When they couldn't locate one they asked a zookeeper where the pigs were kept, and he replied, "Madame, this is a zoo. You find pigs on a farm." Takao never let Obaachan live it down (though she tells the story the best).

When Daddy was 7 or 8, he was laying under the kotatsu (Japanese table with a heater underneath and a quilt over the top), and while he slept he developed a third degree burn on his leg. As an adult he still had about a 4-inch ovular scar on his calf from the burn.

This bicycle wasn't his; it was a prop at the photo studio.

With cousin Yasuko. Obaachan contributed a lot to raising her after Yasuko's mom passed away.

We think maybe Dad is the 4th from the left on the top row, looking over to the left.

Third row back, first on the left.

Third row back, fourth from the right:

Daddy's drawing is the biggest face in the lower left corner, with a long, straight line for a nose. He misspelled his name: Yamata Takao =).

Same picture as above, but bigger.

Daddy's Baby Record

 So I forgot that I also took pictures of all the documents and things that Obaachan showed me but I couldn't take to copy. One was the infant record for Daddy. Mom wanna help me translate any of this? I'll edit this post as I am able to do it.

Daddy was born at 9:50 am, 5 lbs 12 oz.

If I am not mistaken, the box has a piece of the umbilical cord in it. Obaachan has it all wrapped up together in the handkerchief.

Dad as a baby.

Okay, family, I am getting serious about this now, so Mom, I especially need your help. Stories about dad as a baby/toddler?  Go!  (Not school-age or older, we will get there later...).

Obaachan told me a couple of times about how she moved into the Yamada home after she was married, and her mother-in-law, Ai Shibata, taught her everything; how to do things around the house, etc. (Something tells me she already knew a lot of that, though.)

Ramada Inn

Mom and Kathy's adventure at the super-trashy Vallejo Ramada this week reminded me of staying in the Ramada and other local hotels when we were little. I remember at least once when Mom and Dad picked us up from school with our bags packed and we went on "vacation" to the Motel 6 or Solvang or some such place. It was always really exciting to get to go swimming and hang out in the "fancy" hotel room.

Anything to add?

Three million...

Remember Mom and Dad used to promise that they would pay us each a million dollars if they ever got divorced, and that they would never be able to afford it? I am curious as to how that came up. It always made me really happy though; I'm grateful for the security I always had in their marriage, even when everything else was crazy.

Aunt Wilma's Chair

The other day I was pretty worn out, and was rocking Luke in my Aunt Wilma recliner that Kathy passed on to me.

I got thinking about how much Aunt Wilma would have liked to know that I was rocking my babies to sleep in her chair, how she would have held them and cooed over them and loved them. And then I felt like I was getting a big hug from Aunt Wilma.

Special memories or stories from Aunt Wilma? Add a comment or write a new post!