It was the eve of Father's Day 1971. My friend Elbert, and I spent the entire night fishing of the Sportsman Pier in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. We had a cooler of cold beer, and the fish were biting. We spent the night solving all of the world problem's, with the accumulated wisdom of 19 year old boys! Life was good! But that was about to change!
They said that they walked up and down the length of the pier twice, calling my name. If they did I never heard them. Nor, did I see the writing on the chalk board that Father's Day morning!. I did see the message later. Small letters written in yellow chalk! "Tommy Piver go to Carteret General Hospital". When I finally arrived there, my sister came running out the door of the emergency room, and I knew before she said a word. The smartest, and toughest man I had ever know was gone.
How could that possibly be? This was the man who came home from the tobacco market, unexpected, to find his wife had five guy's over for drinking and partying! In the fight that ensued he ended up on the wrong end of a shotgun! Someone(we think my Mom) pulled the triger as the barrel was against his abdomen! The ambulance found him standing by the curb, waiting for them, with his intestines wrapped in a wet towel! And he survived! He was one tough man! I was the 10 month old in the crib, in corner of the room!
Fifteen months before this horrible Father's Day, Dad had a heart attack! Again he survived! They told him what he need to do,............ and what he should give up! I can see him now, pulling one of those unfiltered Lucky Strikes from the two piece plastic case, and flicking his Zippo lighter to life, as he told me "If I have to give up everything that I enjoy, I might as well be gone anyway"! Oh, how many time I have repeated those same words! The one thing that my Dad told me, that I wish I had never heard! He never had the opportunity to learn that there is so much of life that you can enjoy, smoke free! My Dad died at 48! I took me until I was 57 to learn that, and to re-learn life Smoke Free!
There is a collection of things that my Daddy told me, that linger in the back of my mind! Important life lessons, that seemed to be just part of a conversation, all those years ago! How did he know that those teaching moments would stick, if he did not play the role of a father figure telling what I had better do? But the one bit of wisdom he never possessed, was that life is better when you are Free of the addiction to nicotine! And that was an opportunity lost! For him! And for me! Tommy
