The Slice: He recognized the big guy in the schoolyard

I thought we were done with these, but I wanted to share this.

“When you first asked about a memorable last day of school, I drew a blank,” wrote Lawrence Garvin on Sunday. “But today, Father’s Day, it hit me.

“In June 1946, I had just completed third grade at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School. I was anxious for my father to return from the war. My dad, Edward R. Garvin, was a physician in Toledo, Ohio, before the war. At age 37, he volunteered for service in the U.S. Navy. Now, three years later, he was coming home.

“He had been with the Marines on Iwo Jima and, after the war, at Nagasaki. He received a Presidential citation for his work.

“That June day in 1946, I remember leaving the school building and seeing this big guy on the school grounds and I remember saying to myself, ‘That’s my dad.’ He was still in the uniform of a Navy commander with ‘scrambled eggs’ on his hat. I was so happy and proud that I walked him around the school yard, showing him off.”

Cathy McCoy’s recollection is a bit less celebratory.

“On my last day of fourth grade, my ‘boyfriend’ told me that he didn’t want to be my boyfriend anymore. I went home and straight to my bedroom to cry my eyes out. My first broken heart.”

Just wondering: How soon after eating corn on the cob do you have to floss to avoid feeling as if you need to be fitted for a straightjacket?

When you want something done right: Dennis DeMattia was in California for a wedding when he saw something different.

“When the bride walked down the aisle with her father, he handed her to the groom, and then the bride whipped out her cellphone and took a selfie.”

Warm-up question (summer rerun): Back in June of 2005, The Slice ran several readers’ answers to the question, “What do you yell when jumping into a cold lake?”

I wrote at the time that my favorite came from Eric Silk, an 11-year-old from Hayden.

He said he would yell, “In the name of Thor!”

I hope Eric is well and doing fine, and that the Norse god of thunder still watches out for him.

Today’s Slice question: When you can’t be together in person, which is the better way to get to know someone of the opposite sex – texting or phone conversations?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Who will be the first to say, “Boy, the days sure are getting shorter”?