Firefighter
Lawrence Veling
Engine 235
Memorial Service was held
on
December 1, 2001.
Father's
'Blue' Period
It
can be surprising what latent talents fathers discover when they want
to make their kids happy. Last Christmas, Lawrence
Veling found he had a knack for drawing characters from the Nickelodeon
show "Blue's
Clues." He had never sketched or doodled, and couldn't draw anything else.
But for his 2-year-old son Kevin, he could churn out remarkable likenesses
of Blue, Mr. Salt, Mrs. Pepper, Slippery Soap and Tickety Tock in rapid succession
as Kevin cried "More!" Even the neighbors were impressed when they saw Mr.
Veling's chalk drawings on the sidewalk. Mr. Veling, 44, worked two jobs ‹ one
as a fireman with Engine 235 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and one as
a high school custodian in Manhattan ‹ so his scarce time at home was devoted
to his three children, Ryan, 7, Cynthia, 6, and Kevin. He colored in coloring
books. He played Junior Monopoly. He went to school in his full uniform for
fire safety week. "I knew my kids would grow up to be great adults because
they had a great father," said Dianne Veling, his wife. Mrs. Veling says
her own sketches of Blue's Clues characters are inconsistent. "A couple of
times I was impressed with myself, but I forgot how I did it.
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