Thank you Dad


Mark J. Elsis

January 13, 1926

November 16, 2018


by Mark R. Elsis



Thank you Dad; for giving me life; born January 8, 1958, Doctors Hospital, Manhattan.


Thank you Dad; for always being there for me, and for always loving me.


Thank you Dad; for trying to answer most of my many questions when I was a young boy; and for continuing to try an answer my many questions throughout my life.


Thank you Dad; for jumping over the house as Barbara and I ran around the house; each time you were casually waiting on the cement porch in back, before we got there.


Thank you Dad; for taking me up to Lake George and showing me the Adirondack Mountains; which I went back to many times to hike, explore, camp out and enjoy.


Thank you Dad; for taking me a few times to the 1964 / 1965 World's Fair at Flushing Meadows, Queens; which was less than three miles from our home in Elmhurst.


Thank you Dad; for inculcating me with the music of Frank Sinatra when I was growing up. I briefly met Frank in June 1984 and told him, thank you for all of your great music. He graciously told me, your welcome.


Thank you Dad; for taking me up to see the 1967 World's Fair, Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I was taken by the beauty of Montreal and the wondrous design of the Montreal Biosphere, a geodesic dome designed by the great Buckminster Fuller.


Thank you Dad; for taking me to Rockaway Beach, and especially for throwing me into the waves time and time again.


Thank you Dad; for the three trips we took to California and for the trip to Europe where we visited Germany, Austria, and Barbara and Osvaldo (my sister and her husband) who lived near Riva del Garda, in the stunning Lake region of Northern Italy.


Thank you Dad; for taking me so many times to get the best Italian Ices in Little Italy.


Thank you Dad; for taking me so many times to Sunday dinner at Ferrara's Italian Restaurant on 104th Street in Corona.


Thank you Dad; for bringing home so many times, a delicious Chocolate Layer Cake or Blackout Cake from Ebinger's Bakery.


Thank you Dad; for bringing home hand-packed chocolate and strawberry Breyers Ice Cream, and for making the best thick milkshakes and grilled cheese sandwiches.


Thank you Dad; for taking me to sunset dinner at the picturesque Highlands Inn and also for staying at Tickle Pink Inn in Carmel, California. I later stayed in their gorgeous Suite Sixteen overlooking the Pacific Ocean as part of my honeymoon.


Thank you Dad; for showing me 623 miles of the most beautiful coastline on Earth, from Mendocino to Venice Beach, driving down California State Route 1.


Thank you Dad; for taking me to the Ideal Restaurant on East 86th Street in Yorkville (the old German part of the Upper East Side of Manhattan). Where your Father took you as a boy and young man.


Thank you Dad; for taking me to the last Horn & Hardart Automat before it closed.


Thank you Dad; for speeding in the new 1962 T-Bird, against a plane taking off from LaGuardia Airport. It was quite the thrill for your four-year-old son in the back seat.


Thank you Dad; for taking me for a long historic walk and talk (my Father loved to walk and was highly intelligent) through a deserted Wall Street, Trinity Church and Battery Park one Summer Sunday afternoon when I was about eleven.


Thank you Dad; for taking me on the Staten Island Ferry numerous times.


Thank you Dad; for taking me to the Belmore Cafeteria on Park Avenue South and 28th Street before it closed.


Thank you Dad; for taking me so many times to Long Beach, Jones Beach, and the Jersey shore. As a young man, I enjoyed these wonderful beaches scores of times.


Thank you Dad; for taking me and my two friends Eddie and Bobby to Sugar Maples in the Catskills Mountains for the Labor Day Weekend in 1972.


Thank you Dad; for giving me and my friends Eddie, Bobby and Karl a ride up to Star Lake in Vermont to visit my friend Doug.


Thank you Dad; for taking me on the helicopter ride over Manhattan. I remember how scared I was, then the pilot as if knowing this, took off his door, and I almost didn't go.


Thank you Dad; for all of the Rock n' Roll albums and 45s you gave Barbara and me when you were head of advertising and marketing at GO Magazine (the first international Rock n' Roll magazine).


Thank you Dad; for all of the classic Broadway plays and the many great films you brought me to.


Thank you Dad; for all of the culture, you showed me and for taking me so many times to the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit.


Thank you Dad; for bringing me to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade throughout the years.


Thank you Dad; for taking me to Rye Playland, and riding with me on their Dragon Coaster (a magnificent wooden roller coaster that opened in 1929).


Thank you Dad; for getting me the job doing the lighting for Dancin' on Broadway.


Thank you Dad; for going to my All-Star, playoffs and championship basketball games every year I played them from when I was eight through thirteen years old.


Thank you Dad; for being in my corner when I wanted to attend the oldest Catholic High School in the United States, La Salle Academy (Dan Buckley the legendary head coach of varsity basketball at La Salle had already recruited me when I was 11 years old; also, Power Memorial, then the archrival to La Salle for High School basketball supremacy in New York City, wanted me to go there).


Thank you Dad; for buying me the Schwinn Stingray bicycle and the ten-speed bicycle.


Thank you Dad; for helping me learn to drive, in the parking lot of White Plains High School.


Thank you Dad; for bringing me to that nonexistent pool in The Piermont at 201 West 21st Street in 1971; which was the building where Lois lived, and the day I first met her.


Thank you Dad; for having your wedding reception (married to Lois, for 43 years, from 1975 to 2018) at the Hotel Elysée, in Manhattan; where I met and talked with a slightly intoxicated Tennessee Williams (perhaps the greatest American playwright of the twentieth century).


Thank you Dad; for introducing me to your many notable and eclectic friends.


Thank you Dad; for taking me with you when you went to visit Freddie in Sing Sing; while I waited outside in the car for that hour or so staring at the prison, it taught me a real lesson in life, I didn't ever want to be in a place like that.


Thank you Dad; for that 30-second talk when I was around eight or nine. We were walking throughout The Plaza hotel when you saw me in awe of the surroundings. You told me to always be self-confident and don't ever be intimidated by anyone or anything. This stayed with me all my life.


Thank you Dad; for talking with me and telling me in late March 1993, that I should propose marriage to Hilary. I did, Hilary accepted, and we had a beautiful and sacred wedding ceremony performed by Monsignor George S. Bardes at St. Thomas More Church on East 89th Street between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue, with the greatest reception one could imagine, in the brand new grand ballroom at The Pierre.


Thank you Dad; for going with me to the Yale Club luncheon to hear Jerry Brown speak, and afterward introduce you to him.


Thank you Dad; for being at the finish line for both my 1988 and my 1991 runs of the New York City Marathon.


Thank you Dad; for coming to Strawberry Fields in Central Park on December 8, 2000, when I was up there shooting my film, Strawberry Fields Keeping the Spirit of John Lennon Alive.


Thank you Dad; for telling me the unbelievable tragedy that happened to you during World War II, while we were walking along a gorgeous Christmas decorated St.-Martin-Str. in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where the 1936 Winter Olympics were held.


Thank you Dad; for showing me the Hudson Valley, Westchester, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, Suffolk, even all the way out to Montauk Point, on Sunday's when I went out with you.


Thank you Dad; for your caring, guidance, intelligence, understanding, and wisdom from when I was an infant, to a toddler, to a boy, to a teenager, to a man, and till today.


Thank you Dad; for helping me these last few years that have been so difficult for me.


Thank you Dad; for all of the times you picked me up and we went out for breakfast.


Thank you Dad; for all of the times you picked me up and we went out for lunch.


Thank you Dad; for the hundreds of insightful conversations we had together.


Thank you Dad; for always encouraging me to strive to be the best I can be.


Thank you Dad; for being the best Dad a son could ever have.


Thank you Dad; for always being there for me and for always loving me.


Thank you Dad; Goodbye Dad; I Love you Dad.



Thank you Dad may be reprinted, but only in its entirety.

Please just give credit to me, Mark R. Elsis, and link back to:

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