Why My Dad Made Me A Better Writer
This is a really unusual picture of my Dad. It's the only one I have of him smiling. Cameras always caught him with a scowl on his face, which was strange since he was a man who was generous with laughter. But get a camera near that guy, and you would have thought he was Mr. Grouchy personified.
I like to think it is because he was looking at my Mom whom he was married to for 55 years. She would have probably disagreed.
Dad has been gone for 16 years, and I miss him every day. He shaped me -- my passions, values and dreams. He also made me a better writer.
My Dad dropped out of school in eighth grade to work. But I never saw him without a book in his hand. He turned me onto Rex Stout mysteries; loved encyclopedias and the William Durant history series; was an information junkie about health and diet way back in the 1950's; and learned everything he could about the stock market when he turned it into a second career in his 70's.
He was a book hoarder with an insatiable curiosity. When he died, his library numbered in the tens of thousands, and he had read and reread them all.
I believe that my success as a writer is because I inherited his curiosity gene. And the best writers I know share that trait. They go beyond the obvious. They seek out answers. They continuously question. They are the ones in the room always asking "Why?"
My Dad was born in 1909, the son of Russian and Polish immigrants. His dad was a hard-working junk dealer, traveling the roads of New York and Pennsylvania. And like many Jews and poor people, his family experienced harsh discrimination.
Here are some other parts of his story. While he was a teenager, the corner grocery kept his family and neighbors from starving during the Depression. At age 33, my Dad enlisted to fight in World War II even though he was exempt because of his age, being an only son and running an essential business.
He never ever forgot where he came from and that extended to his customers -- most were immigrants or minorities. He loved their diversity and saw them as part of his family. He was invited to their weddings, funerals and kitchen tables.
Most importantly, he deeply loved America and truly saw it as the land of opportunity.
I am my father's daughter. My roots ground me. My authors are my family. And I believe deeply that I live in the best country on earth that is filled with boundless opportunity.