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My father, God rest his soul, would be 98 years old if he were alive today. Considering his short-lived life, 61 years, and all the many things he did in that life, I’m not sure the world could have taken another 30 years of my dad, Lloyd A. “Robbie Robinson.” One of the strangest and most fun things I remember my dad doing was during World War II. We lived in the Bay Area and he had three jobs. One as a bus driver for the Key System bus line, he also was a Coast Guard Reservist, and he worked in the Richmond ship yards.

One night about midnight, after a swing shift at the ship yards, he came home, told my mom to wake my brother and I. Jim was about 10, which would have made me about 4 at the time. He then proceeded to go all over the neighborhood, waking up all the neighborhood families with or without kids. They all came back to our home in their sleeping clothes (strange as that may seem) to watch a real life magician. My dad had somehow talked a magician into entertaining the neighborhood and midnight was the only time he had free.

The kids were over the moon and thought that was the greatest and the adults were thrilled also. I guess during the war you took your fun and entertainment any way you could get it.

All this to say my dad was spontaneous, fun, bigger than life and real. I miss him and think about him most every day and more so now that I am a mom, grandmother and great grandmother. The war years were a strange and hard time to grow up but my dad somehow made them a lot easier for us all.