- He collected Pez dispensers
- He fell asleep during nearly every movie
- He detested tv but oddly loved Malcom in the Middle
- He had, at any given time, no less than five library cards
- He washed his car every Saturday, rain or shine
- He built his own device for measuring the depth of our lake and then mapped every inch of it, just because he could
- He loved to play poker, but only ever for pennies or pretzels
- He had the same cowlicks as me (crown of the head and middle of the forehead to the right)
- He could still read Spanish, but couldn’t speak it anymore
- He felt as strongly about the Oxford comma as I do
- He could not, not matter how hard he tried, ever master chopsticks
- He loved St. Pauli Girl beer
- He staunchly refused to buy hockey skates and wore the same pair of figure skates (the only man on our lake to do so) made of soft black leather for my whole life. He taught me all of the skating tricks I know and carved intricate mazes in the snow for me to test my speed and dexterity. I never was able to master skating backwards, but he still kept trying to patiently teach me.
- He asked my kingergarten teacher to teach me algebra
- He read me to sleep every night until I was fifteen
- He held my hand for every street I crossed until he died when I was eighteen
- He firmly ignored crosswalk lights
- He bought jalepeno stuffed olives in bulk and ate them for breakfast
- He made his own bread and taught me how
- He chaperoned almost every field trip I ever went on
- He sang his own version of "We Three Kings" (off key, loudly) every Christmas Eve at church
- He sang his own version of "We Three Kings" (off key, loudly) every Christmas Eve at church
