That's All Folks!

I love Looney Tunes, Merry Melodies, Bugs Bunny, Warner Brothers Cartoons- whatever you want to call them. They are fantastic! Even the gratuitously violent ones. This is the one instance that I figure, "They didn't turn me into a violent maniac, Mady's going to love them as much as I do". Thank you YouTube for keeping the dream alive.

When I was a kid I would spoon with my dad on the couch, my head cupped by his upper arm and pit, tune in some LT and laugh my head off. Of course most of the jokes were over my head so I would take my cues from him. If he laughed, I laughed louder. Many of our family's jokes were based on those cartoons. The combo of Chuck Jones' directing and Mel Blanc's voices- genius.

When I was in college, majoring in Music Education, I was absolutely stunned by how many pieces of classical music I was familiar with. I aced music history. Thank you Looney Tunes. And my first trip to the opera was fantastical. I could hum along, not the same words but the melody was there thanks to Porky Pig.

After college I moved to Washington D.C. Sometime during my second year there I learned that there was a Warner Brothers store in one of the malls. I was like a kid walking into a candy store. All of my heroes were there! Hello Sylvester. Nice to see you Tweety. It's been too long, good ol' Yosemite Sam. And then I saw it- a black and blue checkered, wool lined, floppy eared men's hat. All our friends were embroidered on the front. My dad had to have it.

I pictured him proudly wearing it to work. All the guys (mostly relatives) would be so jealous. My dad spent 25 years out in the cold all winter pouring cement slabs. He deserved a toasty, cool hat to top off his look which included lots of layers, snow pants and his ever present dickey. I could hardly wait to come home for Christmas.

When the big day arrived and he opened my gift he reacted just as I had hoped. He loved it! I think he actually beamed. I'd like to believe he was thinking back, as I was, to our days snuggling on the couch. He wore it to work the very next day. And the day after that. And the day after that. On the forth day the unimaginable occurred. He came home early from work. Went to take a nap and suddenly died of a heart attack. He wore and worked in that hat for 3.5 days. I had hoped it would be for 35 years.

Happy Father's Day Dad. I miss you very much.