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Car Games

 Every family, I guess, has their version of car games.  There are the standard ones, many involving punching someone when you see an out of state plate or a VW Bug or a white car.  Not in our family. We played " Animal Organizations " - this involved taking the 3 letters from a standard California license plate and turning them into short-hand for a union representing animals.  Our van had UAV in that - the United Association of Voles (it's always Voles if you have a "V").  My first car was SCE - the Sisterhood of Crows and Eagles.  My current car - DRF? The Drowsy Roosters Federation.   There was some standardization - just like "V" was almost always for Voles, you could reliably use A, B, C, F, S, or U to identify your organization - Association, Brotherhood, Committee, Council, Confederation, Federation, Society, Sisterhood, Union, etc.  X was always a challenge.  But isn't it always. Another game was " Huey Lewis ", based on the epo...

Word Play (1)

 I call this post Word Play (1) because invariably I will remember so many more of these as time goes.  Or at least I hope I will.  Because there was little he loved more than clever word play ... unless it was silly word play. Case in point - on the Geary Blvd underpass beneath Fillmore Street, there is a warning sign that reads "SUBJECT TO FLOODING" and for years as we drove under it, he would ask, "Why? Why should we subject to flooding? Fight back against flooding, I say!"

How He Got the Name "Boppy"

At the kids' second Christmas, then-"Grandpa" was sitting in the Dining Room with Caroline sitting on the table in front of him.  I took a video of him playing with her - showing her how to drink from a bottle and how to hold a glass and pulling things away from her as she pulled at the glass drinking cups that were just out of reach of her little hands.  A few months later, as the kids became more and more entranced by pictures of themselves and videos on my phone, one day I was showing Caroline that video, saying to her, "Look! Who's that? Is that you?" And Caroline responded, brightly, "BOPPY!" I corrected her - "No, that's GRANDPA - is that you and Grandpa playing?" But Caroline just kept saying "Boppy". And so it would be from then on.