"High energy" would be a polite way of describing my dad's pitch style. All those commercials wore him out, and often put him in physical pain, but he did them because it's what he loved to do. Another "secret" was that his hair and beard were grey since before he was even on TV. The black was dye. You can imagine what the controversy the tabloids might have made that out to be.

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But stories like that would've ruined the mystique. His whole image was that of the tireless, endlessly enthusiastic pitchman. If people had known of his health stuggles, it may have taken away some of the magic of the ads. We chose not to talk about these problems with the public. He wasn't the enthusiastic, perpetual motion salesmaniac to me. He was my soft-spoken, gentle, and over-worked dad, and sometimes simply standing too long cause him a lot of pain.

And just so this entry doesn't end on a down note: Sometimes I helped my dad hide less tragic secrets. The biggest one that nobody knows about was a multimillion-dollar commercial deal with Taco Bell that he was just about to sign before he died. He literally would have been their new face of the company -- the smiling, bearded alternative to the Taco Bell chihuahua.