Okay so by todays standards this would be a horrible thing.. right? They are Native Americans and to imply that one may have a ridiculously large nose (so large in fact that he was named "Floppy") the image above does not do justice to the one I carry in my mind, but I am not an artist so it will have to suffice as a visual reference.Every night, Dad would tuck me into bed and tell me a story. I really have no memory of him ever actually reading me a bedtime story though he probably did. I do remember the wonderful tales he would spin, conceived and born right there on the spot from his wonderful imagination. The one "character" that has endured, that will one day be introduced to my future Son at bedtime is Floppy the Big Nosed Indian. He always began the story with that "Floppy the Big Nosed Indian" and off he would go. I do not remember any of the specific stories Dad told of Floppy's adventures, just that somehow he always managed to get himself in some sortof trouble and always ALWAYS was able to extract himself from the predicament and come out looking golden. What was great was that it was inevitably Floppy's oversized nose which got him the trouble and Floppy's oversized nose which saved the day. Somehow, his nose, the bane of his exsistence, his source of embarassment and shame, always came through for him in the end. Now I don't know what life lessons there are to be learned from those stories. I don't know what the moral was and I will not belittle the memory by trying to analyze and figure it out. What I do know is that my Dad took the time each and every night to sit on the side of my bed and let me see what a wonderful, silly, intelligent, and loving Father he was, and how much he loved being my Dad. I will carry Floppy with me forever.
