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My Talk With Dad

JUNE 19, 2011 BY TOM MATLACK 2 COMMENTS (EDIT)

Tom Matlack finally asked 

his dad the things he most wanted to know.

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I’m 46. My dad is 73. I wouldn’t say we are close. I can’t

really explain why. He tried to save the world and I have triedto conquer it. I am not sure either of us succeeded, though incertain ways I think my dad had more enduring success thanI have had. Yet when we are together there is always anawkward silence. He often tells me how proud he is of meand that he loves me. But it is hard to break through someunspoken barrier between father and son who chose verydifferent paths and yet remain similar. He reminds me of 

where I came from and, in so doing, makes meuncomfortable of my own inescapable shadow. Still, thereare things I want to know, questions I’d like to ask. So Idecided to talk to my dad as a kind of Father’s Day gift toboth of us.

What I discovered, unexpectedly, is that my dad is a prettycool guy.

Click through the slide show to see what I asked and whatmy Dad had to say:

Next: Man Against Nature

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

James Matlack, my dad, earned his BA from Princeton in1960, his MA from Oxford in 1962, and Ph.D. from Yale in1965. He was a leader in the civil rights and anti-war movements. He taught American Literature at Cornell from1965 to 1969 and at the University of Massachusetts from1970 to 1978. He served as an administrator at Hampshire

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