Dad's Phrases, "Tell Me You Love Me"

I thought it was important enough to record some of Dad's great phrases.  He loved reciting his very poetic, very alliterative, and very loving phrase, "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph."  It was his own trinity, a family trinity that he held dearest, the sacredness of family of his mother, his father, and himself or Josephine.  He would say this in moments of great distress, but also say this while tapping rhythmically on the pink tile countertop in the kitchen as he'd step energetically past the kitchen door that opened into the garage.  I miss that house.  It was in that garage where Mom showed me how to iron my clothes when I was in junior high school.  Dad would quietly pray that phrase either going into or coming out of church.  When I picture him saying that, my mind always drifts to St. Frances of Rome in Azusa.  The pictures below are how I remember one of Dad's favorite local churches, St. Frances of Rome.  I remember that I'd go to confession here with Dad, Tom, and Joe.  On occasion, priests would offer confession before mass, and it was here that I confessed to the priest for disobeying my dad about seeing The Exorcist.

As he made the sign of the cross, "Father, Son, the Holy Ghost," he would make it his own with the occasional "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph" as a protective blessing. Dad had other great phrases.  He'd say "zit, zit, rottle, rottle."  These phrases served more to give him rhythm.  It expressed excitement and enthusiasm and the promise of something fun.  He would punctuate the air with these words as we exited the church and walked on the sidewalk toward his '62 baby-blue Volkswagen Bug.

After mass, we'd go to Sambo's in Azusa for breakfast. That restaurant was very popular in its day.  We'd pull in the parking lot and as we'd make our way to the front door, Dad would stop and pick up an LA Times and a Herald Examiner, and into Sambo's we'd go.  That was before the politically correct police encroached on our rights by burning as evil so many interesting parts of our local culture.  In fact, when the PC police declared it racist, I didn't understand how.  They must have been making this up I thought.  Turns out, I was right.  That claim was used against the restaurant only to all its competitors--maybe Denny's--an advantage.  I liked that restaurant because it was such a great example of Art Deco architecture in Los Angeles.  After breakfast, Dad would take us to different places in Azusa.  Sometimes we'd go to Sav-on's and Alpha Beta in that lot on the corner of Citrus and Foothill years before the gentrification of the Azusa Pacific neighborhood.  Wow!  Those were the days.  After that, we'd end up at the Azusa City Hall park and building in the afternoon.  That was one of my favorite places to hang out.  I learned to love Azusa and the foothill weather.

Veteran's Freedom Park in Azusa, CA.

Azusa City Hall at the corner of Foothill and Alameda. The park behind the old City Hall building is called Veteran's Freedom Park.  The other great place that we frequented a lot was Carmen's Mexican Restaurant.