Watching “Family Affair” Evoking Thoughts Of My Father And Then Hearing Him, However Briefly On A 1975 Tape

Today as “Decades” airs/aired “Family Affair,” which as was the case with the more action oriented “Star Trek,” “Mission Impossible” and “hey hey,” even “The Monkees” began around, or exactly this day, 50 years ago, (it is the same calendar as 1966), I thought of my father.

Some years after my father died, my mother told me he had worked with or at least knew, “Family Affair” star, Brian Keith.

My father was never as rugged as Keith seemed to be, nor was he ever as gentle as Keith was in a changed role for him, as “Uncle Bill” on “Family Affair.”

Yet he was my father and my mood brightened even amidst the darkening skies when he appeared on a 1975 audio tape, that included Manuel Orantes’ upset win vs Jimmy Connors, in the U.S. (Tennis) Open Finals.

My dad was talking however briefly, (if only there was more recording done. If you are lucky enough to still have your parents, cherish that fact and begin recording them. That is can’t miss advice!) about the need for a team to have speed in baseball.

Also it seems he paid 20 dollars of a 25 dollar bill I owed, or maybe it was to put gas in the car,( knowing the two of us I am surprised it was not all 25).

Someone else was there, still on this earth, and one who never paid what he owed. Maybe worse, that person did not show up for the funeral of either of my parents.

Yet hearing both of them at a point in time, put me in better spirits, hoping and knowing to go on.

Brian Keith, pictured above.