{"id":126,"date":"2014-02-10T01:16:50","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T01:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slowsuburbandeath.com\/?p=126"},"modified":"2014-02-10T01:16:50","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T01:16:50","slug":"i-prefer-my-father-batman-dancing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/?p=126","title":{"rendered":"I prefer my father Batman dancing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JdUxRuI\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are very few childhood memories of my father, a man who was already rushing towards old age by the time I was born.\u00a0 At 50, he was already overweight, working the graveyard shift at the old Joseph Magnin department store in San Francisco.\u00a0 He was always asleep by the time I got home from school, and I was ready for bed by the time he was getting ready for work.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He filled my childlike mind with so many tall tales that I believed as truths.\u00a0 He had a tall African American gentleman friend by the name of George Washington, and I was told that he was the father of our nation.\u00a0 He told me that the wrestler Kenji Shibuya was my uncle, a story I readily believed because he was the only person on television \u2013 other than Hashimoto the mouse \u2013 that looked like me.\u00a0 We watched monster films together, and he would often point out imaginary relatives out from among the crowds of people who were fleeing from Godzilla.\u00a0 Because he never disciplined my behavior or was never present when I was performing simple daily functions such as eating or homework, he was more like the funny neighborhood man than my father.<\/p>\n

When we did communicate, however, it was always over television.\u00a0 He made me watch Big Time Wrestling with Hank Brenner on Saturday mornings, then introduced me to the Outer Limits and the Twilight Zone.\u00a0 He bred an intense love for horror\/sci-fi\/monster movies in me, and he would later regret this as I was slow to move out of my tomboy years.<\/p>\n

Then there was Batman.\u00a0 I swallowed the Batman universe with gusto, developing a love for certain villains (Catwoman, the Riddler, the Joker, Ma Barker) and an intense jealousy over Batgirl.\u00a0 My father, who spent his days off away from the family inside movie theaters, indulged the family Batman love by bringing my sister and I to see the Batman movie.\u00a0 He patiently sat in his chair, surrounded by legions of screaming youngsters jumping up and down on seats yelling for Batman\u2019s many adventurous feats.\u00a0 I remember throwing popcorn, cheering and laughing while occasionally turning to look at my father, who seemed to enjoy the experience.\u00a0 It was one of the only times I remember him enjoying anything from my youth, although I might attribute his general cheer to the absence of my mother.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this Batman movie experience was the final act of wholesome American domesticity for me.\u00a0 What would follow was\u00a0 years of loneliness and mental abuse, while my father was relegated to become nothing more than a background figure in our lives.\u00a0 He was always too old to understand, too old to get involved and too old of a husband for my mother, who was about 20 years younger than he was.\u00a0 She made it a point to boast that the point of her marriage was for citizenship, and my father retreated behind an impenetrable wall of silence.\u00a0 He never revealed any of his past, even when asked, although I assume that age had something to do with his faltering memory.<\/p>\n

When I was older, the only words he would utter would reflect his disappointment in me.\u00a0 He wanted me to have my mother\u2019s nose.\u00a0 He wanted me to have my sister\u2019s legs.\u00a0 He told me several times that I should not have been born.\u00a0 When I would go to the Mabuhay Gardens at night, he told me that I looked like a prostitute.\u00a0 Such things were only spoken as pure thought, never out of anger or during a fight.\u00a0 For a man who seldom spoke, these indelicate words were passed on to me as simple comments, as if such words would develop into a thoughtful conversation. Instead I laughed at his words, as any teenager would, although there were times when I struggled to find the man that enjoyed himself at the Batman movie with me.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I learned to associate my father with Batman.\u00a0 My husband tells me that the Batman TV show was too childish, and not at all in keeping with the dark, brooding reputation of the true superhero that stalked through the comic book pages of Gotham.\u00a0 I am fine with the television show as it was, however.\u00a0 The Batman I associate with a happier father liked to speak of Holy things, use Shark repellent spray, leered at Catwoman and had the best dance on television.\u00a0\u00a0 My father loved that dance.<\/p>\n

(c)2014 Slow Suburban Death.\u00a0 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are very few childhood memories of my father, a man who was already rushing towards old age by the time I was born.\u00a0 At<\/p>\n

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