I would not be able to adequately explain the close relationship between our families, or how it was that Peter Hodgson, Sr. came to treat Dad like a son or how it was that Dad came to be Macgregor Kilpatrick's best friend for many years.
My father had an amazing sense of humor. He was a loyal friend even though he had a very small and close circle of friends, mostly family members.
One reason for the close association and trust may have been my father's value as an employee and co-worker. He had an incredible work ethic.
One of my most vivid memories of my father is from the time of a severe snow storm in Connecticut in 1957 or 1958. The entire city was shut down. The radio was urging people to stay at home and off of the streets. Our house at 65 Asylum Street was quite a distance* from my father's office at 424 Temple Street near the New Haven "green". Despite the warnings, dad got up that morning like he always did and got dressed in pants and a shirt and tie. Then he put on some boots. I walked to the front of our house to look out at the street. For as far as the eye could see (which was about to the end of the block) there was an undisturbed blanket of snow. The drifts had partialy obscured the cars. My father appeared below, waved up to me, and then trudged down the street. That image had an effect on me. I rarely miss a day of work.
* Mapquest gives the mileage as 1.58 miles.
