Miami, Money, and Popcorn

My cousin, Richard, runs a sports radio station in Houston, Texas (KGOW, you can stream it online at www.1560thegame.com). His lovely wife, Laura, helps run the station which, I'm sure, blurs the line of work life/home life a bit. I think that might be why Laura has been encouraging Richard to find a different creative outlet on the weekends...so he doesn't spend their weekends at home creating stuff for work. So, Richard started writing these little essays about people in his life. The essay below is a tribute to my father. I'm sharing it now, in honor of Father's Day and with gratitude that my dad's role as a father figure didn't stop with his own children.

MIAMI, MONEY AND POPCORN
MY UNCLE ED KIMBALL

My Uncle Ed was my favorite uncle. At least that is what I always told him when my other uncles were not within earshot. He was a wonderful, loving man that always took a special interest in me growing up, and enjoyed my updates as an adult in the business world.

He was a Miami Man like no other I have known. All of my aunts and uncles, my mother and father, and some cousins attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Out of all of us, Ed was the proudest. Following the football and basketball programs (home and away), checking on the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, and proudly supporting Tom O. Hawk, a colorful bird mascot which I inhabited for two years; Ed loved him some Miami. When the big house in Middletown where he and Marilyn raised my cousins Beth, Sue, Ned and Emily was empty, Ed and Marilyn moved to a condo in Oxford.

He was an international tax accountant by trade, but he taught me some of my first lessons about money. When I told him I was reading Trump: The Art of the Deal, he asked me to check in with him after I was done. After telling him how much I enjoyed the book, he deconstructed Trump and his ego to reveal that Trump’s father was the source for a lot of the Donald’s claims to money, ego and fame. When I told him before graduating from college that I wanted to be a millionaire, he broke down the tax implications, interest, and just how far I could get with a million dollars. I realized that being a millionaire was going to be a lot of work.

And any time our families got together, which was quite often, he would make the kids popcorn. We’re not talking about a little bowl for each child. We’re talking pots and pots and bowls and bowls, until every kid was stuffed. What fun.

I miss my Uncle Ed every day. But as I look around my home study at all of my Miami memorabilia, as I stand on the edge of being financially comfortable, and every night that I make popcorn for my wife Laura and my children Jack and Grace, I take comfort in that we are still getting a kick out of each other.


I am blessed to have had a dad like my dad. The older I get and the more people I meet, the more grateful I am for my father who played the father role in so many ways to so many friends and family. Thanks, Rich, for sharing your memories of Dad and for being a great dad to your children, Jack and Grace.

My dad passed away in October 2007. I miss him in some of the same ways Richard does. I just popped a bunch of popcorn last night for a trip to the Drive-In with friends- and thought of Dad. And, I miss him with all my own special memories of him.