I am visiting with my oldest daughter, Tori, and I asked her to share her memories of her Uncle Mike.
Tori remembers him wearing his paper boy hat and carrying a cane to help him walk. He carried a handkerchief to constantly wipe the sweat from his face. He always wore blue; every article of clothing was blue. Black was acceptable if blue wasn't available. One day we went to pick him up to take him to the store, and she had to give up the coveted front seat for him and go sit in the back seat.
Mike would try to bait Tori and Ben and discuss religion with them. He would tell you he was agnostic, or better yet, and iconoclast. The definition of iconoclast is a person who attacks cherished beliefs or institutions. He would argue any point he could get someone to talk about. I finally told him to stop questioning the kids, who were only in middle school, and to keep his opinions to himself.
Tori remembered one day when he was staying with us, and he started lecturing all the kids about the sugary cereal they were eating. This is definitely the pot calling the kettle black. His favorite foods were frozen breaded chicken nuggets, frozen pizza, sausage patties, soda pop, and white bread. They all just starred back at him, dumbfounded, and kept eating their cereal.
Tori also remembers how he hated Ohio. He actually hated the entire United States. The government was watching him and conspiring against him. He wanted to move to Canada very badly, but never got around to figuring out how to do it.
He was good at chess and loved Star Trek and Marvel comics. One time he started arguing with my husband, Tim, about some detail involving Star Trek. He must have hit some of Tim's buttons because Tim got really irritated with him, and Tori was alarmed as she listened to this argument escalate. Mike loved to argue about anything, just to get a reaction out of you.
These are some of Tori's memories of Uncle Mike. I always told him he had to behave around the kids and not try to convert them to his way of thinking. Most of the time he was able to control himself, but not always!
