The Family Guild

Friday, February 1, 2008

My father and I are hardly very different at all. When people meet him it is common for them to comment how alike we are in our mannerisms, conversation style and attitudes. Even the vertical wrinkle next to our left eye is the same. So it should come as no surprise at all when I tell you that my father is, generally speaking, a selfish son-of-a-bitch.

That's why I was touched and surprised, when at the end of a small get-together at his house last weekend, he casually gave me his guitar. A 1978 Guild D25M.

Now, it's not like he's been playing it since he was a boy or keeping it stored in a humidified, bullet-proof display case or anything. In fact, it was sitting at the back of a closet in an unassuming black case with orange, crushed velvet lining. The strings were old and dull-sounding and the finish was dusty and dry. The old girl was in need of a good cleaning and new strings but not much else.

But still, something about this old guitar is special to me. He bought during the only time in my life I remember living with him, when I was about four or five years old. And as far as I know, during the next three or four years while all the whole family lived together in Japan, was the only time he really seriously played it.

When I opened the case, it smelled like our old army base house at Camp Zama. Musty and humid. Somewhere in my mind I could even still imagine the old smokey cigarette smell I expected to have permeated the instrument.

Though I've often described feeling like my dad was a stranger who had moved in with our family at that time, I have some of my happiest memories from then. It was the last time in my life I really felt safe and not the least bit homesick. And this guitar reminds me of that. A lot.

You can't see this but my dad's Social Security Number is engraved on the back of her head.

There are new strings on her now and I've carefully cleaned and polished her. I've even put a period-appropriate leather strap on her that looks as if it came with that vintage 1970's case. It still needs some minor action adjustment but even as it is, it plays and sounds just like I remember when my dad would strum his way through those old Neil Diamond and John Denver songs.

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