By
Charles Richard Laing
While going through boxes in my father’s attic, I found the picture of him and Hitler. I hadn’t thought about the picture in years. I wondered why.
It
was a black and white picture. Hitler had his arm around Dad, and they were
both grinning for the camera. They were both holding fishing poles. The Fuhrer
was wearing hip waders and one of those hats with the hooks stuck in it.
Dad
looked to be about fifteen in the picture, which would date it somewhere around
1962 or ’63. Hitler looked much older, naturally.
Dad
was proud of the picture.
“Let
me be clear about one thing, son,” Dad would always say. “The Nazis were evil,
evil people. And Hitler was one of the worst.”
But
then he would get that crooked smirk and say, “Still, how many times do you get
your picture taken with someone famous?”
T
The
cancer took Dad in March.
My
big regret was that I never got the chance to ask him what Hitler was doing in
a Wisconsin trailer park almost twenty years after his alleged death.
I
bet it was a hell of a story...