Alan Skeoch

Blog

  • MOM BOUND OUR FAMILY TOGETHER

    Subject: MOM BOUND OUR FAMILY TOGETHER
    Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2018 19:20:19 -0500
    From: Alan Skeoch
    To: Marjorie Skeoch

    MOM BOUND OUR FAMILY TOGETHER
    (I regret I never told her so)

    alan skeoch
    jan. 2018

    Mom held  our family together.  If Dad  had been a single parent then Eric  and I would probably have been raised by Aunt Elizabeth or put in foster homes.  Not because Dad was a bad  man. He wasn’t.  He was  a legend in his own time. Charismatic in a twisted  way.  He just could not resist trying to grab the golden ring of the racetrack Merry Go Rounds.

    After my latest story about Dad  I got several calls  and emails from friends who were horrified.  What we thought was normal was not normal I guess.

  • Eleanor…in the barn as you might expect

    Subject: Eleanor…in the barn as you might expect
    Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2018 09:15:55 -0500
    From: Alan Skeoch
    To: Marjorie Skeoch, Eleanor Calder;

    Hi Eleanor,

    Here is a picture of you I took a few years ago while you were bagging fleeces
    in the barn.
    alan

  • Skeoch family time tunnel “GET ACTION, DO THINGS!’

    Subject: Skeoch family time tunnel “GET ACTION, DO THINGS!’
    Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:37:52 -0500
    From: Alan Skeoch
    To: Marjorie Skeoch
    SKEOCH FAMILY ENTER A TIME MACHINE
    GRAB THE MOMENT WHEN YOU CAN
    Life offers all kinds of opportunities  to do  silly things. We  have always revelled in such.   Why?  Because the study of history engraved four words  into our memory bank.  Words  expressed by Teddy Roosevelt when he considered his life.  “Get Action, Do Things!”   No deep philosophy here but if I had to memorize something from his life then those four words seemed good and we, as a family, have tried  to follow that advice.
    Hence the picture below.
    alan skeoch
    Jan. 2018
    P.S.  I have no  admiration for Teddy Roosevelt really.  Why?  Because of his terrible fascination with guns and the shooting of wild animals.  Killing things is not my idea of ‘action’.   Making the most out of  life…now that is action that hurts no one.   And that is why those four words are so important to us.
    Below is a  picture  we had  taken by a fun photographer on Centre Island when the boys were young and so photogenic.  We  had a lot of fun posing for this picture.  If you ever get such a chance, grab the opportunity.

  • “YOU ARE A GODDAMN FOOL!” “DAD, YOU GOT THAT RIGHT.”

    Subject: YOU ARE A GODDAMN FOOL!” “DAD, YOU GOT THAT RIGHT.”
    Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2018 22:03:21 -0500
    From: Alan Skeoch
    To: Marjorie Skeoch

    “YOU ARE A GODDAMN FOOL!”  “DAD, YOU GOT THAT RIGHT.”

     DAD SPOKE IN OPPOSITES…IF HE LIKED SOMETHING, HE SAID IT WAS JUNK.  WHEN HE CALLED ME A DIMWIT, HE MEANT I WAS OK. NOT THAT I WAS GREAT…JUST OK.  WE LIKED THAT….NO SLOPPY SENTIMENTALITY.  NO KISSING AND  HUGGING.
    alan skeoch
    Jan. 2018

  • DAD HITS THE DITCH WITH THE 1953 METEOR

    DAD HITS THE DITCH…BLAMES  THE  ROAD
    “Fix your goddamn road…hear me….FIX YOUR ROAD!!”
    ‘Red!  Red!  Be careful, you’re weaving all over the road.”
    “have to miss the pot holes…could break a spring.  If that son of a  bitch would  fix  his road, I wouldn’t have play  Dodge ‘Em all the way to the farm.  FIX YOUR ROAD!!”
    “Red! You Fathead!*  You’re off the road…Yiiiiii…we’re going to turn over in the swamp.”
    “Get out ..  everybody out.”
    “Elsie…get out my door….not yours”
    “I can’t…I  cannot move.”
    “Why not?”
    “High heels have gone through the floorboards….pinned me here.”
    “Take off your shoes…crawl out…not that way…boys can see top of your nylons…girdle clips…be more graceful can’t you?”
    {*Calling Dad a Fathead  was the  closest Mom every got to swearing.  Dad made up for this lack  of obscenities however.}
    “Slip up the road  and  get Frank or Ted to come down  to haul us out.”