A Tribute to My Daddy

 What can I say good about my daddy? I love him dearly, and I sure will miss him. He was a great man, even though he had his ways. In the later years he earned the reputation of being a curmudgeon because of his many moods. However, if you looked past all that, he was a man with a heart. He loved small children, especially his own grandchildren. He also kept a garden for many years and gave to those who didn't have as much. Since he retired as a gas pipeline foreman, he would repair people's gas appliances for little or nothing. He loved to work in his yard, and if he wasn't doing that, he'd be on the front porch in his swing. "Let's swing us up a breeze," he'd say.

 My favorite story to tell about him happened when I was in my first year at college. This was about 1991. He came home excited one day with a newspaper in his hand. He opened the paper in front of me to show a picture of Eddie Vedder of the music group Pearl Jam. "I'm finally in style!" he exclaimed, then pointed to Vedder's cutoff flannel shirt and blue jeans. "They're calling it the grunge, but I've been wearing that style for years!" He wasn't lying. He'd wear long sleeve flannel shirts all winter then cut the sleeves off for the summer. He never, ever wore a tie. He may put on some dress slacks and a dress shirt for a funeral or something, but never a tie nor a suit.

 Allen Thomas Griffin was born August 5, 1925. He was the youngest of 8 children. He served in the U.S. Navy in World War II and made the rank of Seaman First Class. The Navy offered him a career, but he said, "When this is over, I'm going back to Georgia." My mother's uncle served in the Navy with my dad. He got my folks together by giving them one another's addresses. They wrote to one another all through the war. When Daddy got out, he took a trip from Georgia to Tennessee to meet my mom. Six weeks later, October 9, 1946, they were married. In fact, they remained married 53 years until his death in March 2000. They had 4 children and 2 grandchildren. Daddy retired from the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) in Knoxville, TN after 28 years of service in January 1978. Immediately after his retiring, we moved to Georgia. He retired from the Brantley County School system as a school bus driver after 12 years of service June 1990.

 There are so many things I can remember. Most of them are short bursts of memory but mean so much to me. I remember his reaction when I got my first speeding ticket while on the way to school. You can only imagine. I think he was angriest when I phoned home. In fact, phoning home was good thinking on my part. At least he got it out of his system before we talked face-to-face. However, he took it out on my mother. She had to hear it, but fortunately for me he was calm when we talked.

 He loved sports, especially college football and baseball with the Atlanta Braves. He was in Atlanta when Hank Aaron was honored for his record-breaking home run. In the fall with both those sports going on, he would often be in the living room watching a game on TV and listening to at least 2 radios covering other games. Many times he would be watching the Georgia Bulldogs on TV with the sound down, listening to the play-by-play of the Dogs game on the radio given by Larry Munson, and listening to the Braves game. If the Braves were on TV, he would have the sound down and listening to them on the radio with Skip Carrey and Don Sutton, and he would be listening to the Dogs with Larry Munson. It was quite a sight to behold. We loved watching players with names like Hank Aaron, Herschel Walker, Kevin Butler, Dale Murphy, Greg Maddux and Pete Rose. His favorite thing to say about sports was that his 2 favorite teams were the Georgia Bulldogs and whoever's playing the Florida Gators.

 We used to go fishing fairly often. Daddy could outfish the best of them with a cane pole and simple baits. His favorite bait was crickets. His favorite fish to catch was the warmouth bream. Daddy loved to eat them fried, crumbled up with biscuits. He would pour syrup over the fish and biscuits. As the years went on, he would go fishing with different friends instead of me. I never understood why I wasn't allowed to go. I went with friends instead of him. It was just one of those things with fathers that go unexplained. My Dad didn't always say why he did something even when we asked him. He didn't know how to adequately describe his feelings. It was something we all struggled with over the years, but we learned to overlook the lack of explanations for anything.

 His favorite restaurant was Shoney's. Whether you were the queen of England or the president of the United States, I do believe he would always suggest Shoney's as a place to eat. Not that there is anything wrong with Shoney's. I still eat there from time to time, especially for breakfast. Daddy would want to eat at Shoney's for any occasion. It became the running joke in our family. Before anyone would complete the sentence "Where are we going to eat?" the rest would chime in "NOT Shoney's".

 One thing I didn't like about him was how he always referred to my size, especially around other people. Our size difference was obvious, and he really had some cruel comments about it. He's say, "I never get enough to eat because he gets it all." Like I said, however, he was a great man despite his shortcomings. I guess if you've never been offended, then you never learn how to forgive.

 He loved ice cream and milk. We always had plenty of each. Ice cream many times was our truce. We had times when we didn't get along and even tried to avoid one another. I would stay in my room to avoid him when we had such disagreements. He would bring home ice cream to get us talking again. He never told me that, but it was obvious. He didn't like being shut out of my life, even for a short period of time. I can't say I blame him, but I always avoid the ones who cause me to be angry. We would disagree on the most basic things and ruin our relationship for days. Neither of us would ever compromise. In the later years I would let him ramble on knowing he wasn't going to enlighten me or change my opinion. I just didn't let on that my views were different. He would say, "If you don't straighten up and fly right, me and you's gonna go round and round." I always thought he got that from a movie he saw when he was young, but I am yet to see it.

 The last few years of his life he ate at least a bowl of ice cream a day. We had a Yorkshire terrier named Cody who would go bananas if Daddy reached for a spoon and a bowl. The little dog would watch his every move from getting the ice cream from the freezer, dipping it into the bowl, and each and every bite. The reason? He'd get to lick the bowl. Before Cody Daddy didn't like dogs, but Cody won him over. Daddy didn't like Cody's yapping, but he did seem to appreciate Cody's calmer moments.

 He hated Republican politicians. Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., Dan Quayle, Tip O'Neil, Newt Gingritch, et al. were often the objects of his derision. He could be nice for days, but when one of them came on TV, he would use lots of profanity. Several people have remarked since his death about his passionate hatred for Republicans. He grew up in the Great Depression, and since Hoover was a Republican, they were all bad in his eyes. None of them ever had an agenda that helped the working people, in his opinion anyway. He said the only Republican he would even ever consider voting for was Eisenhower, but I doubt he voted for him.

 He was one to go on many rants about whatever was on his mind. We had to put up with it, yes, but it was a good way to find out what was ailing him at the time. Before the county paved the road we lived on, he had a run-in with people spinning ruts in the road. After he turned one guy into the police, a carload of guys spun up our yard on a Sunday afternoon while we watched from the porch. Daddy jumped up and down and pitched a fit, probably much to the delight of the delinquents.

 In 1978 Daddy retired from the Knoxville Utilities Board gas department. He took a job as a school bus driver. That became the subject of many rants. I was to be compared to every unruly loser child on the bus and all their friends. He had a lot of trouble with kids on the bus...fights, vandalism, pot smoking, you name it. There were many negative ones, but I have a favorite he used to tell. There was this girl who was really quiet and kept to herself. She often slept the whole way home. One day as she slept, one of the worst passengers began to pick on her from the seat behind her. He started messing with her hair and ears. He taunted her. She warned him to stop many times. Finally she had enough. She turned around in the seat, sitting on her knees. This boy obviously didn't have a clue what was coming because she slapped him so hard she knocked off his glasses and left her handprint in the side of his face. This young punk runs up to the front of the bus, "Mr. Allen! Mr. Allen! Did you see that? Are you gonna turn her into the principal's office?" Daddy said, "No, sir. I'm gonna buy her a Co-Cola 'cause you sat back there and begged for that." Her mother told me years later that the girl had even turned herself into the office the next day. The principal knew the young brat she slapped and said, "No way I'm gonna punish you. If I had the money, I'd buy you a fur coat."

 For many years, Florida has had a lottery. They voted theirs in way before Georgia. Daddy played like it was going out of style. He never won "the big one", but he earned quite a reputation both in Florida and Georgia for being a consistent winner. He liked the scratch-off tickets. He won anything from a free ticket to $1000. I really didn't like him gambling, but it did get him away from the house and allowed him a little bit of a social life. There were several men he hung around drinking coffee, telling stories, and playing the lottery. Before the lottery came to Georgia, he would ride down to Florida to buy tickets. Often he was a runner to get tickets for several others. One Christmas our whole family was down from Tennessee. My sister wanted to go to the cemetery to pay her respects to our grandparents. She remembered our granny liked sweet potatoes, so she wanted to put some on the grave. I was working evening shift at the time. I was to get off a little early. I'd say it was about 10pm or so when I got to Mom and Dad's. After a little while of talking and watching our brother sleep on the couch, she tells me her plan. So my nephew, she, and I take a midnight ride to the cemetery to put sweet potatoes on granny's grave. Fearing that someone might call the police, I parked the truck with the headlights on toward granny's grave. I figured someone who happened to see us would see that we're only paying our respects and not doing anything criminal. I figured wrong. As we walked back to the truck, a deputy pulled up. I had seen him around before and knew he would know our Dad. Of course, he seemed suspicious of us at first, but I told him we were paying our respects. My sister added that they had driven a long way and not having much time, she explained, we ended up coming out at night. Finally, I considered it helpful to mention our Dad. "You might know our dad, Allen Griffin." His face brightened. "Yes, as a matter of fact I do know Ol' Lotto Allen."

 All those years we spent with Daddy, and we had a clue what was wrong with him. The man was lost. He needed a Savior. After much convincing and prayer, Allen Griffin accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior about a month and a half before he died. He was concerned that he was too sick to be baptized. Our pastor at the time, Rev. Jerry Chancey, suggested we baptize him in the bathtub. That certainly was a glorious day. Daddy even remarked that he should have done it years before. We had their little house full of people singing and praising God. After all, the Bible says that one soul is worth more than the whole world. The Bible also says: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. I will see Daddy again because he is in heaven. Join us there. Jesus died for you, too. Believe on Jesus and be saved from hell and eternal death. I'm looking forward to heaven, and you can too! Jesus has already paid for your trip and mine with His life. All you have to do is believe.

The following pages are a pictorial tribute to Daddy.

CLICK HERE

Allen Thomas Griffin August 5, 1925-March 27, 2000