Dad and Some Things He Said
Roy Wilfrid “Chic” Johnston (1923 – 2005)
Roy Wilfrid “Chic” Johnston claimed to be my father. He knew I was a genius and wanted to take the credit.
I suppose he was my father because we have the same surname.
In previous blogs, I wrote about how Dad got the nickname Chic. For those who are uninformed because they have not followed my blogs, my grandmother used to buy the chickens live and then slaughter them before preparing them for dinner. She would give the chicken’s feet to one of her children to play with.
One time, when Dad was five years old, it was one of Dad’s brothers’ turns to get the chicken’s feet, but my grandmother gave the feet to Dad because he was sick. In fits of jealousy, my uncles called Dad, “CHICKEN! CHICKEN! CHICKEN!” Over the years, it was shortened to Chic.
At Dad’s funeral, many people who had known Dad for over 40 years said, “I never knew your father’s real name. I always thought it was Chic.”
Mom called Dad “Roy.” But when Mom was angry with Dad, she called him, “WILFRID!” We always knew that Dad was in caca when Mom called him by his middle name.
My grandmother said she got Dad’s middle name from Canada’s seventh prime minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Dad was born in Toronto, but Laurier was the prime minister when my grandparents came to Canada from Jamaica circa 1908.
Dad often quoted football coach Vince Lombardi:
“Winners never quit, and quitters never win.”
Dad would also encourage me by saying,
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
Dad went overseas during World War II when he was 19 years old. Seeing the horrors of war caused him to become an atheist.
“How could there be a God who allows such death and destruction? I hated the Germans for what they did—hated them!
“I was in Berlin on riot patrol after the war ended. There was so much civil unrest, confusion, and riots because not all Germans knew that the war was over.
“I saw a German mother weeping because she had lost her son, a German soldier.
“Suddenly, all my hatred for the Germans vanished! I did not see a German mother weeping for her son, but just a mother weeping for her dead son. I thought how that could have been my mother weeping if I had died.”
What a watershed moment for Dad! He had no more hatred. He loved his fellow human beings — no exceptions.
“Think of yourself as a human being first. It is secondary if you want to be a Colored Canadian or Negro. You’re a human being first, just like everyone else.”
Dad was humanitarian and liberal-minded until about ten years before he died in 2005. Dad became ultra-conservative and racist when he started losing his mind. The more senile he became, the more conservative and racist he became. I am not against conservatism; I am just saying that Dad became more conservative, angry and racist the more senile he became. How sad to see this because he was once such a tolerant and loving person who raised us to be the same.
Dad and I argued a lot with his new ultra-conservative and racist views. He was filled with anger and hatred, which was way out of his character.
Instead of ending an argument peacefully with, “We will agree to disagree,” Dad always shouted at me,
“I fought in World War II for your right to be stupid!”
Thanks, Dad.
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