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| Father Seymour Walker |
By Steve Walker
Today is Father’s Day. It is the day to
nationally celebrate and honor all our fathers who are still alive and those
who have passed away.
In my case, my father passed away at the
age of 62 in 1985. My grandfather (his father) passed away at 65 in 1962. As a
teenager I visited with my grandfather maybe three or four times before we
moved for the umpteenth time.
Growing up in the fifties I remember
Father’s Day at my house as not being overly memorable as a little kid. Later
as the teenager in the sixties I remember the family would load up the car with
my five younger brothers, mother, father and me and we would trek to a local
restaurant for that special Sunday meal celebrating fatherhood.
Since there were so many of us, we usually
were forced to wait much longer than smaller families for a table. Most of the
time they had to pull two or more tables together so we could all crowd in and
fit around the tables for the Father’s Day meal.
Once I graduated high school in upper
state New York, I left to attend college in Fort Worth and was not around for
those celebrations after that.
Ironically when I worked as a weekend
reporter at KENS-5 Eyewitness News in 1982, my very first assignment was to do
a Father’s Day story on George
Cisneros, the father of then Mayor Henry Cisneros who I have previously written a column
on for “Just a Thought.”
It was exciting visiting him at his home
and interviewing him about his family’s Father’s Day traditions since I had previously
served in the Army Reserves with him in the 70s long before I met the Mayor.
He was my unit commandant at the 90th ARCOM
on Harry Wurzbach Road. Every Monday night, (Reserve meeting) I would report in
at the ARCOM and either pass him in the hallway or report directly to Colonel
Cisneros office for assignments for the evening. I do recall standing in front
of him in his office smartly saluting him until he returned my salute.
By the time I interviewed him for the
story, he had retired from the Reserves and I would run into him at the local
gym where we both worked out. In some ways he reminded me of my own father.
During our workouts we would visit and
talk family. Like my father, Colonel Cisneros was a strict disciplinarian, but
a fair man and great commander. Around that time he suffered a stroke and got
around with some assistance. When we worked out I would spot him when he
attempted to lift some light weights.
He eventually passed away some years later
and I attended his funeral that attracted hundreds of family, friends and
mourners. In conversations with Henry and his family at that time, he shared
that his dad was a great father.
I was privileged to have served with that
great father, spent time with him militarily and in the gym. Eventually I
reunited with my own father for his last two Father’s Days celebrations here in
San Antonio, before he too passed away.
Today is the day to spend with your
father, be it at his home or yours or perhaps at a local restaurant. Either
way, Happy Father’s Day.
And a special Happy Father’s Day to the founder
of La Prensa of San Antonio and the husband of Millie, the father of Nina,
David, Steve, and Tino Jr., Tino Duran!!!
Anyway, as always, what I write is “Just
a Thought.”
Steve Walker is a Vietnam Veteran and former Justice of the
Peace and Journalist
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