I found a cache of essays written by my father (Martin Jens Damgaard 1914-1994) between the end of his senior year of high school and the end of his freshman year in college (1932-33). (In that year Mt. Rushmore was dedicated, work began on the Golden Gate Bridge, FDR was inaugurated, King Kong premiered and Adolph Hitler ascended to the Chancellory of Germany). I think if Dad were alive he would render a mixed reaction to my outing a glimpse of his 17/18 year old mind on social networking--feeling at once gratified that someone, let alone his late-middle aged son, would value his late-adolescent take on things, and abhorrence at the violation of his privacy (he died twenty years ago). Dads 17 & 18 yr. old essays cover the following subjects George Washingtons Farewell Address, What I Expect to Do in Freshman English, A Poor Substitute for Football, Weather, Speed, The Semicolon, Why I Would Like to Study the Atlantic Monthly Next Semester, Men Who Make Flying Safe, William Beebe, The Deer, Napoleon, the Genius, Trials of a Freshman, New Worlds to Conquer, Lead Us Now (re: FDR), The Virtues of Boredom, Possibilities of the Rocket Plane, Paint, The Economic Crucible, On Having Nothing to Say, Why Government?, Skunks and Stumps, The Farm Strike, Sunday and The Education of the Negro, 1870 to 1910. Finding this cache of essays is for me much like the enchanting moment in Field of Dreams when Ray Kinsella Jr. meets Ray Kinsella Sr. only the elder Ray is actually a young man (and younger than his Jr.) when they magically meet on the impromptu baseball field. I also possess quite a bit of Dads writing from his 60s and 70s (not to mention some seventy letters to my future mother, from Europe that he wrote while serving there 43 to 45) and it fascinates me to compare the young Martin with the elder Martin, my father, and me his lone child. In advance of Fathers Day, and remembering you on D-Day + 70, Dad, I miss you.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 19:28:10 +0000
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