Sunday, June 20, 2021

That Was My Father

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Happy Father’s Day,  dearest Reds and readers, and if you celebrate this, hurray and wonderful. If not, it’s the summer solstice, isn’t it? And that’s a celebration of its own.


Either one indicates time is going by, a marker of change and remembrance, of new days and days past. 


We’ve all talked about our fathers here, and that’s one thing that makes us such a community--you know about all of ours, right? And we have heard about yours, and that brings us even closer.  


I recently found a Father’s Day card that I hadn’t sent--one of those cards that you buy on a whim because it’s perfect, and then you think--I’ll save this for next year. And then at some point, there isn’t a next year. So--hugs and memories to all.


So let me tell you about another father. And how he came to be on these pages today.


Recently--whatever that means  these days---I shared a writing/reading event with an author I hadn’t met before, John Hough, Jr. He lives on Martha’s Vineyard, and was appearing for his book Little Big Horn, a story that's been compared to Lonesome Dove. We had a terrific time, and the crowd loved him, and when I took that book home, Jonathan grabbed it and devoured it.


Everyone promised to stay in touch. And you know how those things go. And then the pandemic.


And then I got a note from John, saying he had a new book coming out, a different book, and asking if he could send it to me. When it arrived, I saw that it wasn’t the same genre as the previous one.



THE SWEETEST DAYS, it was titled, and the cover had two wedding rings. Huh. And a blurb from Elin Hilderbrand. Huh. I stood at our kitchen counter, and thought, I have to work! But  I’ll just read the first page and see how this is.


Twenty minutes later, I was still standing at the counter turning the pages. Reds and readers, do NOT miss this. There’s a synopsis below. Whoa.


So of course I invited him to the blog, and what did he send? By chance and by serendipity,  the perfect story for Fathers Day. 

 

That Was My Father

         By John Hough, Jr.


He sits forever at his desk in the bright airy newsroom, arms folded, sleeves rolled, necktie loosened, staring at the blank sheet in his typewriter, thinking. A typewriter rattles nearby. A phone rings. He doesn’t hear them. He unfolds his strong arms, and now his hands go to the keyboard. They caress it a moment, and then he’s writing--rapidly, more rapidly still, words flying onto the page.


This was my father, Jack Hough, editor and publisher of the Falmouth Enterprise for 25 years, until his retirement in 1994. My memory of him at work goes back to the summers of my college years. Falmouth is a seaside resort, and Dad would hire an extra reporter for the summer, to help him keep up with the seasonal bustle. He hired me, at my urgent request, for three summers. My beat included ball games, fishing, musical theater, the island ferries, sailboat races—the blithe rituals and diversions of summer on Cape Cod. I also covered burglaries, house fires, bar room eruptions, a few shark scares.


     My father may have hoped I would succeed him at the Enterprise, as he had succeeded his own father not many years before. But I had other ideas, and he was generous enough to accept that. He may even have known I had dreams of becoming a novelist. Whatever I did, I was going to write, and Dad took it upon himself to teach me how.


        The tutorials often took place at his desk. There was a chair alongside, and he would call me over and discuss copy I’d written. We talked at home, at odd times, or driving home from the office at day’s end. English is the richest of languages, he said—he liked to point out that an English dictionary is twice as thick as a Larousse—and there is one right word for everything. Know the true meaning of every word you use, and where it came from. There was an enormous Webster’s Unabridged in the newsroom, and he sent me to it again and again.


To know a word is to know its connotation. There are no forests on sandy Cape Cod, there are woods. (Maine and Canada have forests.) After I wrote my first theater review I found a note under the bail of my typewriter: Crowd in Fenway Park, audience in a theater.


        Write strong declarative sentences. Favor active verbs over participles. Avoid the passive voice. He quoted Mark Twain, “As to the adjective, when in doubt, strike it.” He wouldn’t allow “virtually,” as in “the building was virtually empty”—was it empty, or wasn’t it? He wouldn’t allow “inclement weather”—inclement how? Police reports cited “driving under the influence;” in the Enterprise it was “drunken driving.”


       Falmouth, the Enterprise, and different versions of my father turn up repeatedly in my fiction. In The Sweetest Days Falmouth is Dunstable, the Enterprise is the Inquirer, the editor is Ed Hatch, a gifted newspaperman of high intelligence, like my father.


The novel is about roads taken and not taken, life choices that make all the difference. My father, who could have gotten a job anywhere, chose Falmouth and the Enterprise, abandoning dreams of New York, Washington, a bureau overseas. The dreams pursued him down the years, those beckoning roads not taken, all but blinding him to his own excellence, his superb stewardship of the Enterprise.


My father, the best newspaperman I’ve ever known, was modest to a fault. For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t be the writer I am without him.

           

HANK: Told you.


(My Dad was a newspaperman, too. One of his classic lines: “There’s always another typo.” Truer words were never spoken.)


Reds and readers, what--or who--are you thinking about today? And a copy of  THE SWEETEST DAYS  to one lucky commenter! (Kleenex not included..)

 



THE SWEETEST DAYS

Peter and Jacqueline Hatch have been married for decades, after a stumbling beginning together. They were high school sweethearts in 1964, when Pete left her without saying good-bye and disappeared from school, enveloped in scandal and tragedy. They reunited after a chance encounter 11 years later, and an impulsive marriage soon followed. Now in their sixties, with their only daughter grown, and facing ominous news about Jackie’s health, they travel to their Cape Cod hometown for Pete’s first book signing. An old schoolmate turns up at the signing, bringing the past with him, and raising questions that bring Pete’s and Jackie’s long marriage to the breaking point. “I never lied to you,” he tells her. “I’ll be the judge of that,” Jackie says.

 


John Hough Jr.
is the author of six novels, including The Last Summer and Seen the Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Gettysburg, winner of the American Library Association’s W.Y. Boyd Award. He is a graduate of Haverford College, a former VISTA volunteer, speechwriter for Senator Charles Mathias of Maryland, and assistant to James Reston at the Washington Bureau of the New York Times. He lives on Martha’s Vineyard.

 

          

 


75 comments:

  1. It’s wonderful to have such special memories, John . . . I’m looking forward to meeting Pete and Jackie . . . .

    Happy Father’s Day to all the dads as well as the uncles, brothers, cousins and everyone else who is there for the Little Ones and who all help to make family so special . . . .

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    1. Awww.. You are such a dear and treasured friend. Xx

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    2. Thanks, Joan. Those summers at the Enterprise, learning to write--sort of--were the happiest of my life.

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  2. What a great tribute to your dad, John. Working with him and learning from him must have made those summers so special. My father was in real estate, and I think the most valuable lesson I learned from him was to talk to people and you’ll find out you probably have something in common.

    The Sweetest Days sounds like a great read, and being in my 60s, I like that Jackie and Pete are, too. I also plan on looking up your Little Big Horn book.

    Since you live on Martha’s Vineyard, I’m wondering if you’ve read Geraldine Brooks’ book Caleb’s Crossing? It’s set on Martha’s Vineyard when it was still inhabited by Native Americans, but with the white man there and slowly changing it. This fictional story is rooted in fact and features a young Native American man who is the first Native American to go to Harvard. With your interest in and writing about history, I am curious if you’ve come across this book, a book I found fascinating.

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    1. That’s really revealing! People in real estate I have to be great listeners, don’t they? That is a valuable lesson…

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    2. I have read Caleb's Crossing, Kathy, and also Geraldine's Civil War novel, March. (I read March, among other reasons, to help me write my own Civil War novel.) Ms. brooks is a terrific writer and a Vineyard celebrity. I haven't met her, but I hear she's extremely nice.
      I'm actually in my 70s, but I wanted Pete and Jackie to be a bit younger, and I tagged their approximate ages by mentioning Obama's presidency. Anyway, my sixties is when I started looking back at those roads taken and not taken, those choices that made all the difference.

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    3. John, I'm so glad that you've read those two books by Geraldine. I first came to reading her through her book about the 17th century plague in England, based on the true story of the village of Eyam, Year of Wonders. And, People of the Book is also excellent historical fiction from her.

      I've always had a fascination with Custer, too, and I've put your book in my Amazon cart.

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  3. Welcome to the Reds John! your father sounds like a treasure. I'm looking forward to reading this book, and wondering about the big change Hank mentioned, from Little Big Horn to The Sweetest Days. Would love to hear about that!

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    1. That’s a great question! Yes, it is quite a departure…

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    2. The book before Little Bighorn was Seen the Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Gettysburg. I've had a lifelong fascination with the Custer battle--this is evident in The Sweetest Days--and a visit to Gettysburg with my wife and father moved me so much that I wanted to capture its meaning, which I find in the Gettysburg Address. I loved writing the historical novels, but my agent was pretty firm in saying I should get back to what I've lived and known. And she was right: it was time.

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  4. Congratulations on your latest release! My family has a four generation connection to South Chatham. Thinking about good times on the Cape today.

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    1. Yes, and apparently the Cape traffic is back! So funny to rejoice in that…

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    2. Thanks, Margaret. Cape Cod is in my blood, and I love writing about it. I think Chatham and Sandwich are the prettiest towns on the Cape.

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  5. This morning I was mostly thinking of the people in Flint, Michigan, as our water is back on, but with a boil advisory. One day's inconvenience compared to . . . how long has it been now?
    Now, after reading those wonderful remembrances, I'm thinking of my father and the many stories he told us. When I said in kindergarten that I wanted to be a teacher, he told me to get good grades for a scholarship because "Daddy is a working man" sheet metal riveter McDonnell Aircraft, helped build Mercury and Gemini space capsules. <3

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    1. Oh, that is so poignant and sweet! Stories like that remind me me of Stus Terkel’s WORKING— such an important book! And did I know you lived in Flint??

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    2. I agree with Hank--poignant. Pete and Jackie have a grown daughter in The Sweetest Days, and Pete's relationship with Jennifer is, well, special. As is my relationship with our daughter. Anyway, your note makes me wonder if father-son relationships and father-daughter relationships are different in some fundamental way. Not better or worse, just different.

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  6. A lovely story, John. My father was also a writer of sorts, and a great role model.

    Would you happen to be a Quaker? I noticed the Haverford college connection.

    The new book intrigues me and is going on my TBR list.

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    1. I'm not a Quaker, Edith, but I admire them. There was a strong Quaker influence at Haverford when I was there. We attended Quaker meeting once a month, and I had an English professor who'd been a conscientious objector during WW II and drove an ambulance. There was lots of resistance to the war in Vietnam, naturally.

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  7. Happy Father's Day to all who have "fathered", in all the possible ways that can be. (I always wish my mother a happy day on this holiday, since she had to fill both roles for a long time.)

    Jack, what a great dad you had, and such wonderful memories. The right word is vital, by golly! I'm looking forward to reading The Sweetest Days.

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    1. Thanks, Karen. He bought me my first baseball glove when I was nine years old--I remember picking it out at Eastman's Hardware--and we played catch, the first time I'd held and thrown a ball, in our back yard on a gray cool April day.

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  8. John, THE SWEETEST DAYS sounds like a gorgeous novel, and as a person in the "of a certain age" demographic, I love reading about characters facing the same life challenges everyone else my age is encountering.

    I'm a three-generation writing family as well; my mother, trained as an English teacher, made me technically proficient with her brutal editing of all my high school papers - she once sent back a letter from college marked up in red! She also encouraged and enabled my voracious reading habit, laying the groundwork for my career as a novelist. And now, my oldest daughter writes for The Portland Press Herald!

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    1. Brutal editing, oh yeah. My wife and my agent are my first editors these days, and they don't pull any punches. My father was exacting, but he had a way of letting you know quite painlessly. He paid me one of the sweetest compliments I've ever had: "I never have to tell you anything twice."

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  9. Oh, and Happy Father's day to all! I'm having the best possible weekend: I got to see my dad for the first time in almost two years, and I have another visit today before heading home to Maine.

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  10. Happy Father's day to all! My father was a man who could make anything with his hands; he built the houses we lived in and built one for a friend and neighbor. He came up with a design for a picnic table "the good kind that won't tip over" and after hours from his day job and when he retired he made hundreds of picnic tables, chairs and benches. There was a time that everyone in the county had one of Fred's picnic tables. When my daughter was almost 2 I saw a rocking horse I wished I could buy but it was very expensive. My father told me if I got some plans he would make it. And what a wonderful horse it was - even I could get on it and rock!

    Looking forward to reading The Sweetest Days, John. By the way, I appreciate the distinction between woods and forests. I live surrounded by the woods, although there are signs not too far away proclaiming they are state forests.

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    1. What was the secret of the picnic table?

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    2. Judi, I mean it when I say I admire the kind of skill your father had as much as I do the skill of a fine writer. It's a gift, and the gifted either use it seriously or they don't. And, the "State Forest" on Martha's Vineyard is woods--scrub oak and pine. You get that.

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    3. I too, appreciate the distinction between woods and forests. I left the NH woods for the forests of Oregon. Another one: if someone in Oregon called a logger a lumberjack, they'd get laughed out of town.

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  11. My dad was a writer - dialogue, snappy repartee were his strength. He was a great laugher and storyteller. Sadly I cannot remember a single piece of writing advice he ever gave me. Unlike Judi's dad, he was so UN handy he couldn't even hang a picture.

    Jack, sounds like you won the "dad" lottery...

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    1. You are pretty amazing at dialogue yourself, Hallie, maybe you just don’t remember what he told you? Or maybe it just sank in :-) ?

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    2. I love writing dialogue, and I use it whenever I can to tell the story. I've had some criticism for this, but I won't move from it. "Dialogue is character"--George V. Higgins.

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  12. What a wonderful essay! Jack, thank you for sharing and giving us all a glimpse into your backstory.

    Happy father's day to all. My dad was a hands on, do everything kind of guy. He never gave me writing advice - he was an engineer so my math skills are impeccable, if seldom used. He and my mother fostered my love of reading. I don't remember my dad without a book on the end table and a second on the nightstand! He encouraged us to ignore the restrictions of "reading levels" and read whatever captured our fancy and then took the time to explain (and show us how to find our own answers) whenever we had questions.

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    1. There's a scene in The Sweetest Days in which Pete comes home from a date late at night and finds his father at the dining table, drinking a beer and reading. His mother and sister had gone to bed long since. I can't tell you how many times I had this experience. The book Dad was reading would be history; I remember him reading Churchill's Life of the Duke of Marlborough at 11:30 one Friday night.

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    2. What a wonderful memory. My dad was usually reading British history, or historical novels. His nightstand book was always biography.

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  13. What a wonderful man your father was. So wise and helpful. Thank you for this loving tribute to a very special person. Your novel sounds captivating.

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    1. He was wiser and more helpful than he knew. He was, as I said, modest to a fault. He never thought of himself as "wonderful," but I'm glad you do.

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  14. Welcome to Jungle Reds, John! It's wonderful that your dad is supportive of your career. I have known fathers like yours. Sounds like you won the "Dad" lottery, as Hallie said. Your book sounds wonderful and now I want to read your book.

    Hank, this would be a wonderful Father's Day gift any time of the year! THANK YOU for introducing us to a new author. Why on earth didn't I know about this author before???

    My Father loved history and he was a master storyteller. He was a master craftsman. He built a coffee table.

    Happy Father's Day to all of the Dads out there.

    Diana

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    1. My father loved history, like yours. He liked to ask people where they would go, and in what era, if they could time travel and observe life invisibly. His choice? Ancient Rome.

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    2. Yes, I agree… Just when we think we know everyone…
      And THE SWEETEST DAYS Is so terrific… Wonderful summertime, or anytime read. And wow, Elin on the cover!

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  15. I am so taken with your post today. My father was extremely creative and self taught in everyway. He succeeded with strength and perseverance and read all his life. He had a voice like an opera singer, could sculpt life an artist and built a business. A short life though fraught with trials and tribulations. Thanks for this beautiful book feature.

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    1. Thanks for the warm words. My father was also creative, and had strength and perseverance, for sure. But he couldn't sing a lick, or sculpt. He had his trials and tribulations but hid them pretty well, and lived to 88. He was creative, but never really was able to release that side of himself, and I know that caused him interludes of pain.

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    2. That is so interesting… I can’t sing or draw or sculpt, not one bit, never ever ever, and sometimes I wonder about it. But I am happy with the words thing.

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  16. Tears in my eyes at this lovely tribute to a remarkable father/mentor. The book's cover is so evocative. Looks like a great read. I'm the daughter of a wonderful Dad who taught me what love is, and gave me books and baseball.

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    1. Books and baseball! Enough said. I like your dad already.

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  17. And John, do tell us how you decided to write this very different kind of book!

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    1. It began with something that happened to me my senior year of high school. The event is in the novel. At a critical moment, my girl friend literally walked out on me. It didn't change anything--we were soon back together--but I've often thought how it might have. It does, in the novel; it brings a new girl into Pete's life, for a time, and leads to an event that haunts his marriage to Jackie Lawrence. Hank, I've been thinking a good while about those roads taken and not. Haven't we all ha dreams we never pursued? Regret, in spite of the Frank Sinatra song, seems to me to essentially and poignantly human.

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    2. Have you read The Midnight Library? It may change your mind about that!

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  18. What a beautiful tribute. Thank you for sharing today!

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  19. That was a wonderful snippet about your dad and your relationship. Thanks so much. I am remembering bits and pieces of family history today revolving around my dad. He's been gone almost seven years now.

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    1. At a certain age, memory is largely comprised of bits and pieces. They're always vivid and, I think, definitive. WQriters call on them all the time, of course.

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    2. Absolutely. ANd so intriguing what emerges sometimes..

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  20. John, thank you for the wonderful essay about your father--so evocative that I can almost see him. It certainly made me think about my dad and the gifts he gave me. Self-taught after the 8th grade, he loved books and reading. He wrote poetry, and all the advertising slogans for his business. I think if his circumstances had been different he would have been a writer. He adored Dick Francis novels. So many of Francis's protagonists were, like my dad, self-made men with a strong moral core.

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    1. Self-taught after the 8th grade! And a poet who loved books. Our fathers are coming alive today, thanks to Hank.

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  21. That choked me up. What a touching essay. Perfect for Father's Day. I lost my father at age 18 to suicide, PTSD from WWII, and never a year goes by that I don't wish he were here. He wanted to be a writer and artist so it is with those gifts he passed down that I make his dream come true. John, thank you. You catch the essence of love between you and your dad with heart-rending writing. Thank you, John and Hank, for sharing this.

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    1. No, thank YOU, Valerie. Somewhere in my novel someone says--Pete, I guess--that we live on, possess an afterlife, in memories of us, if nothing else. In this way, my father and mother are very alive today. As to another kind of afterlife, I honestly don't know. Pete and Jackie don't, either. There are mysteries.

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    2. Yes, exactly. There is some kind of connection, we just don;t understand it. There are more things in heaven and earth...

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  22. Reading the excerpt has me wanting to read this book. Adding to my "To Be Read" list right now.

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    1. I appreciate it, Jean, and I hope the characters and their story will speak to you. My wife had a T-shirt made, designed by our daughter, and intends to wear it around town this summer. On the front it reads, "I'm not Jackie." On the back: "I'm not Corinna, either." I understand the impulse here, but I think Jackie and Corinna are both okay.

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    2. SO great. And a perfect walking billboard--and instant answer to what will be a constant question.

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  23. Late to the party today. Heading home from visit with Jonathan and family. He was born on Father's Day 39 years ago. Great weather for a Massachusetts weekend.

    Hank,thank you for bringing us that beautiful essay, what a lovely tribute to John's dad. I am putting his book on my TBR LIST. Happy summer!

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    1. Sorry for the late answer, Judy. I'm technologically backward and didn't see your note till now. I'm delighted to be on your TBR list and hope you like Jackie, though she is NOT my wife, as Kate pints out.

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  24. Today I am thinking of four people: my dad (died in 2003), my grandfathers (died in 1966 and 1989) and my son who will become a first time dad in September!

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    1. That is so perfect—and so lovely! Thank you!

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    2. See my apology to Judy, above, Linda. My maternal grandmother lived into her nineties and was beloved by all. Her husband, my grandfather, died in his fifties, and I have no memory of him. By all accounts he was as wonderful as my grandmother, and I've always felt the lack of not knowing him.

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  25. Thank you for a wonderful day, everyone! Winner announced this week!

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  26. And the winner is VALERIE J BROOKS! YAAY! Message me your address. xoxoo

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