[andyfox]

My family name, duh, is Fox. But it's a made-up name. The first member of my family to come from the old country (Poland) came over in 1918. Illiterate, he signed an "X" at Ellis Island. They needed a real name for the records, so the easiest thing to teach him was "Fox," as he already knew the "x."

Or so the story goes, as my grandmother told it to me. She came over with my father, who was 20 months at the time, in 1921. My dad worked two jobs and became a lawyer, going to St. John's and NYU at night. But before that he was in New Guinea during WWII, Army Corps of Engineers. He is the least competent engineer on the face of the earth. Or maybe second, behind me. Yet he was first seargeant, and entertained General MacArthur by showing his group's prowess in transferring a tank from the beach onto MacArthur's transportation ship. Oops, they just missed, dropping the tank into the sea. Somehow we won the war anyway.

My dad was going to go to officer's school when he reached up to get his clothes off a shelf and heard a ripping sound. Turns out it was his arms, some mysterious jungle skin disease. Back to the states and six weeks at Letterman General at the Presidio and by that time the war was over.

My dad's still going strong at 87, plays golf twice a week (came within six shots of his age last week), has a girlfriend ("She's young," he told me, but I found out she was married for 57 years the first time she was married), stayed out 'til 2AM on New Year's, drives (not well, but I made him give up his Cadillac for a small Ford), and tells me he's not afraid of dying, it's how he's going to die that scares him.

His official birthday is November 18. But his mom remembered (and his aunt confirmed) that he was born the day before a Jewish holiday. We went back and checked and it turns out it was October 18.

I have pictures of both of my parents' families where my dad and mom's mothers are babies in the lap of their mothers; one taken in Poland, the other in Russia. I figure they're from the 1890s. My mom always said her family must have had money, otherwise they couldn't have afforded the photograph, but I don't know if that's the case.

My mom's birthday is coming up, I'm going to go talk to her, as I always do. I didn't talk to her enough when she was alive. I doubt this makes up for it, but who knows.