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For Father's Day, I want to hear Dad tell that story By Tom Waggener Someone posted a question on Facebook yesterday prompting father's favorite quotes. I immediately thought, "...practically no one were driving the car..." Obviously this will sound random for people who didn't know Ed Waggener nor the defendants. The quote was the last line, or rather the punchline, of one of Dad's favorite stories about a group of intoxicated locals who wound up in court for bad behavior in a moving vehicle while under the influence. As the story went, at the trial, the gentleman on the witness stand was asked who was driving the car at the scene of the crime. The man being questioned responded, "practically no one were driving the car, your honor, but Buckham Frankum were feeding the gas." I don't think I could do the story justice but one of my fondest memories is of Dad telling the story to someone new, who may or may not have heard it before, and to his own family who'd heard it countless times before. My clearest memory is of how Dad's face lit up as he led into the punchline and his staccato laugh that would follow. No one in the room laughed as exuberantly as Dad did but it was one hell of a story and always got great laughter. I recall thinking a lot about that story during the ten days that Dad was in the ICU leading up to his passing two years ago. I spent time in the room with him reading Confederacy of Dunces to him, a book that we had shared as a family on many trips when I was a child, and a book that remains my favorite all-time comedy. After Dad's death I found myself thinking that I would go on a hunt and try to find evidence of the people in the story, or try to find people in community who could tell me the story in its entirety. I have yet to get around to it. Dad's love of storytelling is one of the major characteristics I've adopted from him. And now as Tillie is nine and starting to tell her own stories, I wonder what my Buckham Frankum is or may be. Probably the story of my best friend Will's 21st birthday and it's punchline, "...and Vice Squad's sitting right over there!" ... but for reasons I won't get into, that's definitely not a story that I'll share with my nine-year-old daughter. Which brings me back to the story of Buckham Frankum and how much I wish I had it dedicated to memory because even though it's a story of a group of alcoholic misfits, it stands the test of time and gets a laugh out of people from most ages. Not too long ago I was talking to a close friend about this story, what I could remember of it, which is mostly the punchline. We waxed poetic about how that punchline could be a metaphor for life and our roles as fathers in it. The car is driving itself and we're frantically feeding it more fuel hoping for the best outcome. Today I think I know why I hadn't gotten around to researching the full story and putting it in writing, or try to do it justice in a retelling of it myself. It probably is already in writing somewhere in the stacks and digital tomes of what is Ed Waggener's magnum opus. But the story is inconsequential. Because what I want more than anything is to hear Dad tell that story and see his eyes light up as he rounded the bend and closed in on that punch line that probably everyone in Columbia has heard countless times. The beauty of it was witnessing the joy of storytelling as told by Ed Waggener, of seeing his smile and hearing his boisterous laughter fill the room and eclipse everyone else's. Dad genuinely enjoyed that story as much the last time I heard him tell it as he did the first. So to all the fathers out there today, keep feeding the gas. Happy fathers day. This story was posted on 2020-06-21 17:48:32
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Governor's Sunday Update Grandpa - My Hero! A Father's Day gift Every child has a gift FM2 has fresh garlic, green beans, squash, onions and more Governor's Friday update Governor appoints Kinnaird to KY Board of Dentistry KY receives $7.4M in Federal AmeriCorps service grants Suit filed against Signature Healthcare Job of Youth Pastor open at Columbia United Methodist Adair to receive $15K household hazardous waste grant View even more articles in topic News |
 
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