Father's Day - I Remember

Daddy taking us into town to get a .10 ice cream cone when .10 meant a lot more than I knew

Never really knowing we didn’t have a lot of money, it didn’t seem important

“Helping” add our indoor bathroom

“Helping” tend to a sick calf

Watching the Gillette Friday Night Fights together on our first TV

Him turning the TV around so all the kids could sit out on our lawn and watch TV through the window while catching fireflies.

Having the preacher over for Sunday lunch and the table loaded down with food collapsing to the floor

Walking home from school and stopping at the little store to get a Coke and bag of peanuts to pour into it while telling the store owner to “put it on Daddy’s account”

While outside standing around he’d always wind up squatting down

He always wore short sleeve shirts (most plaid as I recall) even in the dead of winter

His integrity as shown by his favorite saying “If I tell you a hen dips snuff you can look under her wing and find a box”

Our move to Houston in the U-Haul truck while I was sitting on the floor of the truck looking up at his big strong arms

Him catching the preachers grandson testing the “Cats have nine lives” theory on the church’s cooling tower while the cat was on number eight

Riding out to Pasadena to buy his first pick-up truck and his bargaining with the salesman until walking out over what amounted to .25 a week only to be called back in by the sales manger to close the deal.

Him taking us to La Porte to swim at the “beach” and having to get out of the water when a ship passed by

Helping him build a camper for the pick-up out of ply wood, aluminum frame windows, and black paint

His fresh starched khaki pants that Mother had done with metal frames

Sleeping in our camper atop the nice and breezy hill in downtown Hot Springs only to be run off by the park patrol and sent to the state park down in a hot still valley

Leaving Houston during Hurricane Carla because he didn’t think our garage apartment would withstand the storm. It did, but our trip to Navasota was a great experience

Talking him into a two door 1966 Ford Fairlane with a 289 for our family car

Going to work with him at Hermann Hospital and being fascinated with all the gauges and the cooling towers

Watching EVERY Dallas Cowboy football game that was broadcast

Helping him rebuild our ’51 Ford and learning how to work on cars

His first heart attack and visiting him in the hospital while he was still under the oxygen tent

His great love of our daughter even if she did always seem to wind up with a wet diaper when he had on his green pants

Running out of gas about 10 miles from their house late one freezing night and contacting him via CB radio relay and him siphoning enough gas from his truck to get us there

Catching the biggest bass of my life that November and how great it was that he was there to net it

His ride on the back of my motorcycle while holding onto me – by the way it takes further to stop with two people on a motorcycle

Sitting in their backyard while Mother pointed out the cloud that looked like a sycamore tree – it actually was a tree and we laughed while kidding her about it for years

Stopping at the donut shop in Tyler after visiting Mother in the hospital after a knee operation

We named our son after Daddy’s birth surname and he was so proud

The stroke and how although he was never the same, I knew he was still there when I gave him a hug

Being “too busy” on too many occasions to go visit when I should have

The call – when I was informed of his death and the emptiness and pain that followed

I’m Just Saying - Happy Father’s Day, I love you Daddy