"Hey, Dad" was not filmed before a live studio audience...

Today was one of those days filled with questions. Frederic and I were driving home from his chess tournament (4th place, second trophy, almost rated), and he just started in with the questions. They all began the same way, "Hey, Dad..." Frederic gets stuck in a mode sometimes, and he needs to get from point A to point Z before moving on. The questions were interesting; maybe just to him. He wanted to know things about me, and this was the vehicle in which he chose to lead him down that path. I didn't really have good, very specific answers to some of the questions, and I may have even blogged about some of them in recent posts. We spent the last twenty minutes of our ride, in "Hey, Dad," mode. I'll try to recreate the Q&A session as best I can.

• "Hey, Dad, what were Papa's last words?" I really don't remember. I think they were 'I need to go to the bathroom.'


• "Hey, Dad, what would you want your last words to be?" I don't know, Frederic...probably 'I love you.'


• "Those are nice last words." Uh, huh.


• "Hey, Dad, what did you want to be when you were a kid?" A lawyer.


• "A lawyer? Why?" Because my favorite character on TV wanted to be one.


• "Who was your favorite character?" Michael Evans, from a show called "Good Times."


• "He wanted to be a lawyer?" Yep. And I think I wanted to be one because I like to argue.


• Laughter. "Mommy says I should be a lawyer, too, because I like to argue."


• "Hey, Dad, did you ever want to be President when you were younger?" Nope. Do you? Want to be President, I mean?


• Big smile. "Yeah! I'd love it if I could be President." You can be if you want.


• "Hey, Dad, who was your best friend when you were a kid?" Define kid. Like what age?


• "Before ten." When I was your age, my best friends were Dean Drozak, Jerry Andrews, and Tony James.


• "How about after them?" When I was in sixth grade until I was in eighth grade, my best friends were Jeff Hagen, Jimmy Vanacora, and Tom Bray. We stopped hanging out when we got to high school.


• "Hey, Dad, do you see any of those guys you mentioned anymore?" I haven't seen any of them since high school. Over 20 years ago. Silence for a minute. I am "friends" with Jeff Hagen on Facebook, though, which is kind of cool. We haven't seen each other in a long time, but we have communicated on Facebook. He reads my blog and comments on it, which I appreciate.


• "Hey, Dad, who was your very first best friend?" Billy Lusnig. I hung out with him since I was five and then on and off until we graduated high school. I haven't seen him in a long time.

We pulled into our driveway, and when I stopped the car to let him out, he grabbed his trophy, anxious to show Cyndi and Lily. He had a smile on his face when I saw him close the door. I'd like to think he was smiling, not just for the trophy, but because he asked and I answered.