Uncle Dave

If I had to choose one person that influenced my childhood, it would be my uncle Dave. My parents and brothers affected me in many great ways, but when I think back to my childhood, I my uncle Dave pops into my mind. I could not wait to visit my cousins, so I could see what fun was in store.

Everyday after school, my aunt Lori used to babysit my brothers and me. She would pick us up in her old station wagon and take us to our awaiting cousins. I always loved going over there, because they always had the newest video games. My uncle Dave made sure of that. My cousins, Anna and Kara, were very playful and had creative minds. If we weren't doing one thing, we were doing another. We constantly had some kind of plan to have fun.

Even with all of our grand schemes of fun, uncle Dave will stroll in from his job at the local news paper and have an idea for us kids that was ten times as fun as anything we could think of. A few things that we all did with my uncle Dave were: riding the four wheeler, blowing up things in the fire pit, turning the back yard into a huge swamp, and taking the boat out onto the Ohio River. A lot of the activities my mom did not like us doing, but we did anyway, especially going out onto the river. My mother is afraid of deep water, and cannot swim.

No matter the time or the place, one thing was constant with my uncle Dave, his shirt. Even if I try to remember as hard as I can, I fail to picture my uncle Dave wearing anything other than his work shirts. They were all the same. All were light polo shirts that were as blue as jays. I even remember seeing his closet. Hanger after hanger, shirt after shirt, I could only see in blue when I viewed his closet.

His shirt actually accented his most obvious feature. Since his shirt was only so long, his belly slightly hung out from under it. Uncle Dave was a big fellow. His haircut was straight from medieval period and as black as the plague. The nose in the center of his face was quite big, but brought a sense of jolliness to his persona. That was a good way to describe him, jolly. He was always happy. It seemed like nothing fazed him. My mother said that he spent his money too lavishly. I think that he just loved using his earnings to enjoy life. Even without money, he found new uses for old toys.

Even today, I try to see the world with his eyes. He always seemed happy. In turn, that made everyone around him happy. He was, and still probably is, an asset to the world. It is a shame that him and my aunt got a divorce, because I have no idea where he is today. I have not seen him in nearly 16 years. Even if I do never see him again, he impacted me greater than most people who have known me my entire life. I only hope that I may have this same effect on my children, and give them a healthy view on the world as a whole.