Remembering Frank Kastner or Where I Got My Curmudgeony Sarcasm

I was born four months before my father's 50th birthday. A man small in stature but tall in ambition, pride, and passion. He knew when he heard his first radio show that he was meant to be a radio announcer. He dedicated his life to his passion for music.

That passion would take him down many strange paths. He had a gift for being strongly opinionated and oftentimes his opinions clashed with those of authority. This resulted in him losing many jobs that he adored, resulting in long periods of joblessness or having to take a job that barely put food on the table. We had Christmases with no Christmas. Times when he feared we would lose our home. He took in boarders, recently discharged convicts, to help pay the mortgage. At times, we lived off of the goodwill of neighbors and the local soup kitchen. Yet he did not give up. He continued to send his resume out, call contacts, pursue the smallest nugget of a lead so he could get back onto the radio.

I remember friends calling me to tell me how they had listened to him the night before. How he was funny and they wanted to know if he was really my dad and can we hang out sometime and can they be on the radio too? I remember sleeping on the couch at the radio station when he couldn't find a babysitter and he was working the overnight shift. I remember, as a teenager, scaring the beegeeberz out of another radio personality in the bathroom at 11 PM because I was dropping my dad off for work, so I could use the car. I remember my dad getting the car filled with gas, when my father said, "Fill it with regular, please." the gas attendant blurted out, "You're Frank Kastner, aren't you? I'd know that voice anywhere." All the while I slunk down to the floor.

I remember a man who talked to me like I was an adult. A man who believed that we can accomplish anything with enough will power and determination. He never let me slack even when something came easily to me. I remember a man who was both arrogant and humble; intelligent and ignorant; adventurous and fearful; happy and guilt ridden. I remember a complex and loving man who will be and is missed by many.

Thank you for being my father.