Happy Father's Day to Old Black Charlie!

Happy Father's Day to "Old Black Charlie!"

What a beautiful day God has given us to celebrate, salute, honor, and remember our fathers. I am sure that this day has many different meanings for many of us. I am probably one of those who celebrate my mother for all the fatherly things she did to raise me because my father was absent from our home.

However, I knew my father and the many other families to which he belonged. I found him to be a decent person for the most part, but he was absolutely a character. I take time to remember him today because I carry and exercise many of his good and bad traits. I see reflections of him in my siblings and my children.

The name I first knew my father by was Charlie Williams. I later learned that he was also known as Clarence Williams, CW, Rock, and a few other names depending on who I was talking with and in what city.

I remember my father as early as five years old and missed him terribly when he and my mother separated. At age fourteen (14), I demanded that my mother send me to him, and being my mother, she did! Dad sent the bus ticket, and I went to Pompano Beach, Florida! What a terrible reunion! After that first visit, I spent every summer in Florida with my dad. Those were some of the best summers of my life.

Dad met me at the bus station. I was looking for this tall, handsome, Black man, dressed to "T" waiting to meet me. Instead, a tall, Black man, dressed as a plumber, driving a huge plumbing truck, was standing there calling my name. WOW!

Then we got home. There I met for the first time five of my siblings -- Joshua, Winifred, Clarency, Chester, and Lester. No one told me that I had these siblings. LOL They were in awe of their big sister. And the was Maude, their mother who was a kind and gentlewoman.

As it turned out, my dad was the first Black master plumber in the State of Florida. He owned properties (houses, transit houses, and his own business) and employed his family and others. He was a savvy businessman who could be ruthless at work and home. My dad accomplished all of this with a third-grade education.

He tried to teach me plumbing, it just was not my cup of tea, but some of my brothers and sisters became expert plumbers. I always wish that at least one of them lived up here with me, especially when I have plumbing issues. LOL

My mother always told me, and I have come to agree, I take after my father in many ways, including some of his negative ones. I always thank God for my mother and her gentler, kinder, and more spiritual nature that softens that side of me that would be "pure Charlie Williams."

So, this Father's Day, I give thanks to "Old Black Charlie" (my nickname for him when he was not around) for his DNA, genes, and those things that he contributed to making me. I loved that twinkle in his eye that matched that twinkle in my mother's eye. I loved his work ethic and his keen eye for business. Although he was a workaholic, he also had his downtime.

Old Black Charlie could cook, and for me, his bar-b-que was second only to Uncle Randolph's, my mother's brother. Dad could size up a situation or job in a matter of minutes. He would help any and everybody, financially or otherwise. He would drive around Pompano with me in the truck and would stop and visit everybody to see how they were doing. Everybody knew "Black Charlie!" By the way, NOBODY called him "Black Charlie" to his face. LOL
My colorful language is one of those things that I picked riding around with my dad. Funny, I learned it, but you can bet I never ever used it in front of him or my mother. That was a no-no.

I write this today in memory of my father, Clarence (Charlie) Williams, who died at eighty-nine with a full head of black hair. He was a character, but more importantly, he was my FATHER!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD.