Growing up the son of Phil and Lee Carroll was any boys dream. Imagine being a child and your father being a 'big cheese' at a candy factory. Unbelievable. When he came home from work the kids on Hardy Road would come out of the 'wood work' to see what treats Dad had in the truck.
Dad was quite the engineer and quite pragmatic. Some of you may remember a soap box derby cart Dad built me. This was no ordinary cart. Teflon assisted power steering. Wood frame for you Morgan enthusiast and brakes. All entirely mechanical. It took days to build, but it was perfect. We rode it until it literally fell apart from our abuse. This began our romance with wheels. Dad had such cool cars. A 1936 Ford we kept for 40 years known as "Old Blue". Glenn and Shelley will remember mom's 1968 Mercury Park Lane convertibles. Two of them. One aqua marine and one canary yellow. Only Dad, the dealer and I knew that the second one was a rare 428 big block V-8. Dad always kept mom in a hot set of wheels usually a convertible and once even Italian. You deserve it mom.
Dad taught me at an early age that IF IT WAS WORTH DOING IT WAS WORTH DOING RIGHT. This he applied to anything he was to be a part of including parenting, despite my best efforts to screw that up. Every chapter in this book played out in classic Phil Carroll form. He gave each of us all the tools needed to make something of ourselves and I know he is proud and smiling right now.
I could go on and on because there are so many memories and lessons learned, so Dad know we are all keeping care of Mom and we will miss you and one more thing Dad.... Will you and Grandma Carroll have a word with the man about the wolverines. They're in a bit of a slump. I Love You.