Sometimes you’d try to tell Dad after such a visit that his popping in like that was embarrassing. “Embarrassing?” he would ask, a little hurt. “What’s embarrassing about it?” Then he’d sort of pinch you on the shoulder and say, “Well, maybe it is a little embarrassing for me, too, Old Timer. But you’ve got to learn not to show it, and once you’ve learned that, it doesn’t matter any more. The important thing is that dropping in like that gets results. The teachers lap it up.”
