Dad sometimes patted me on the knee and called me his Little Schmuck.

The line reads as a wry, intimate recollection of father–son rapport, using a mildly derogatory Yiddish-inflected term (“schmuck”) in an affectionate, teasing way. It suggests a household dynamic in which warmth is expressed through joking nicknames and physical gestures (a pat on the knee), and it implicitly frames the speaker’s memory as both tender and slightly self-deprecating. In a memoir context, such a detail often functions to humanize a public figure (“Dad”) by emphasizing private, ordinary moments and the complicated mix of love, humor, and embarrassment that can characterize family relationships.