The Dynamic Duo

During my father’s wake services so many people came up to me to tell me stories about him. He was definitely a character but there were new stories that I hadn’t heard before. I was really glad that people shared them with me. Many of the stories involved my mom and my dad.

My next door neighbor told me two stories that I thought were so funny and sweet. My neighbor had moved to New York from North Carolina and encountered a shock when she found a big New York waterbug in her kitchen. She frantically called my parents to let them know. My parents knew that these insects could be shocking to those who were not used to them. So they walked over to her apartment together. She pointed out where the bug was and they both looked at each other to confirm that it was in fact a ‘New York city waterbug’. My mom took a paper towel, covered her hand in it, and smacked the waterbug. She crushed it. My dad, with cigarette perched on his lip, reached out and grabbed the paper towel, crumpled it to ensure said varmint was indeed dead and then he walked out of my neighbor’s apartment. My mom told my neighbor that they would be calling the exterminator to come just to be sure there weren’t more. My mom smiled at her and walked out of the apartment.

Another time my next door neighbor’s refrigerator stopped working. She obviously called my parents to inform them. Both of them came over with the repair man to inspect the issue. The repairman looked at the issue while both my parents mentioned how the fridge was new. A little later the repairman mentioned that the part that was needed to fix the problem would be hard to find since the fridge was 20 years old. Both my parents frowned – my father doing so with the ubiquitous cigarette perched between his lips. My father finally contested that he would order a new fridge for the tenant.

My dad placed the order and was available to let the delivery man and the new fridge into my neighbor’s apartment. My next door neighbor called frantically after receiving my dad’s message that the appliance was already in her apartment. She interrupted my dad to try to find out which size was ordered. To which my dad responded “I know you like the smaller version so you can put your microwave oven above the fridge. So that’s what is here. See you soon.”

My neighbor mentioned these two stories but also said how she felt safe having them next door. Whenever my parents were in the building, they always held their own private inquisition on any people they didn’t recognize. The questioning would go something like this:

“Hello, who are you?”
“Which apartment are you going to/coming from?”
“What’s your name?”
“Who am I? I’m the landlord, that’s who. And it’s none of your business!”
“I remember you now so maybe I see you again soon.”
“Bye _______. I will tell _____ that I saw you.”

My neighbor insisted that my mom was the more persistent of the two (she’s from a small town that is very involved in what other people are doing) but that my dad scared many of her friends. It really made me giggle to hear these stories because obviously I knew what my parents were like. To hear how other people saw them was very touching and endearing. In their own way, they were Batman and Robin to a small group of buildings on the Upper West Side. Now Robin works a solo gig but I’m sure she will continue to give the tenants stories to match the ones people had of her husband.