A Halloween Memory with My Dad

A Halloween Memory with My Dad

This is a picture of my dad and me getting ready for a Halloween party. I am four years old. We must have decided to dress up as the Lone Ranger and Tonto.

In the neighborhood I grew up in, my dad was always the designated parent to accompany my girlfriends and me when we went trick-or-treating. He followed us at a respectable distance—close enough to make sure we were safe, but far enough away that we could fully enjoy being scared by other people’s costumes, pets, or parents who had dressed up too. We always knew he was nearby, just in case anything really happened.

I love this picture of my dad. He has just gotten home from work—I know this because he still has his plastic pocket protector on his shirt pocket, which he wore every day at work. Dad was a chemist and needed it to hold the different colored markers he used to mark tests around the lab. There were logs beside each test that was being run.

I liked visiting my dad at work. His employees were nice to me, and I could always find a bucket of powdered sugar under one of the tables. It was being tested to make sure packaging standards were being met. At this point in his career, Dad worked for the Great Western Sugar Company.

—Lee Ann