Dad

PSA: Last year the hospital had to scramble a few times to get platelets for Dad. It really hit home how low the blood supply is. Please donate blood or platelets if you can. Free juice & cookies.

I'm Barney's son John - I'd like to share a few random thoughts about my Dad. My brother Joe wrote a great tribute to Dad. It's on the table outside - please read it. I'd read it now, but I don't think I could do it without breaking up.

Ok - where to start? Father Barker advised me that a eulogy isn't the time to relate all the events in a life history. Good thing - otherwise we'd be here for a long time. Dad had a million stories, and there are a million stories about Dad. Quite a few of them are about his time in the Army.

This is a funny thing to say considering we're in a funeral home, but my Dad was a survivor. He hardly ever spoke about his tours in Viet Nam; well, not the nasty parts. The few stories that did leak out gave me a great appreciation for the skills and luck that he used to return safely home. I'm not sure that I would have had the wits to survive some of the situations he had been in.

Dad was proud of his service in the Army. Most of his Army stories were funny, and based on him bending the rules and working around the system. For instance, Dad was always buddies with the mess Sergeants. It's not too much of a stretch to say that when I was a kid, I thought that everyone got their peanut butter out of large olive-drab cans, and that jelly only came in those little plastic packets. I'll tell you what though - we read through a folder of his official military papers the other night. It was filled with commendations and letters of appreciation. Every one verified that above all, he was a good soldier.

As we all know, Dad was a character. Usually when that's said about someone, it means that they're kinda goofy or quirky. Well, maybe my Dad was in certain respects. But he also had a lot of strength and backbone behind that. Like everyone else in our extended Giza family, he'd give you the shirt off his back. Dad was of the old school, where people were constantly doing favors for each other. Of course, sometimes we'd get mad, when Dad would go overboard. I remember way back-when to the '70's and '80's. For a few years in a row, one of us three J's would throw a summer party. Every year we had to scramble to buy a new set of extension cords because Dad had loaned the old ones out and forgot who had them.

Dad & Mom ran the Triple J Inn for 17 years - Dad did the bartending, Mom did the books. Well, the bar was called the "Triple J Inn", but everyone knew it as Barney's. Like Dad's 20 years in the Army, the bar is the source for lots of stories. Remember the way he used to raise money for parties by doing his magic act of sticking dollar bills on the ceiling? How about the pool games where you had to use a gardening tool as a cue? Or the horseradish contests? Or leaving the bar with a handful of stubs to Legion or VFW or Firehouse raffle tickets that Dad somehow convinced you to buy? Dad always had something going on.

One sign of how well he got along with people is that he always spoke his mind, but somehow didn't make enemies. That's a rare trait. As my Mother says, he had the gift of gab. It was funny to see how he could use a box of doughnuts to negotiate his way to an earlier, more convenient, doctor's appointment. Mom's story about Dad commandeering a wheelchair at Walter Reed so he could wheel in a couple bags of onions describes Dad to a tee.

Dad was always joking around. Just last Tuesday, a new doctor stopped by to check up on him. Dad gruffly demanded to know what kind of blood he was getting. The doctor was taken aback & didn't know what to say until Dad followed up with "is it Polish blood? Is there beer in it?" Yeah, sometimes he just liked to see people's reactions.

Dad might have joked around, but everybody trusted him. You could always count on Dad for his honesty. He enjoyed running the Super Bowl and World Series pools. No one ever worried that a single dollar would be missing if Barney managed the pool.

I've got a reputation for looking through rose-colored glasses, but I'm not trying to paint a picture of a saint. Dad wasn't perfect and he had his flaws. He could be stubborn as hell and gruff. He was a no-nonsense and no-complaining type of guy. He was never overly or overtly sentimental, but Mom & my brothers & I know he loved us. And we love him. He loved his daughters-in-law and his family. He & Mom love their fantastic grandkids and are proud of them. From the turnout the past couple of days, we can see how well everyone loved my Dad. He left quite a few friends behind.

You say the name Barney in this area and most people know you're talking about my Dad. I haven't lived around here for more than 20 years, but whenever I come back, I'm still introduced as Barney's son, John. I'm proud of that.

Anyway, thanks for coming. It means a lot to my Mom & my brothers & me to see this great show of support and respect for my Dad. Please keep in touch - I know Mom would appreciate that.

Reception at the Polish American Legion Hall in Pine Island, NY.

John Giza