As we age, we begin to remember all kinds of things we have stored away in our minds. Older people have stories to tell of their memories and younger people often roll their eyes when they hear it coming....
I have begun to have those kinds of memories and stories to tell..... and my children roll their eyes.
Since tomorrow is Father's Day, several people who are my facebook friends have posted old pictures of their fathers. I decided to give it a try and surprised myself by successfully scanning a picture on the first try.
It was a picture of my father as a very young man just enlisted in the military. My middle son, Seth, bears an uncanny resemblance. We often knock heads, too-- just like my father and I did. Must be a form of payback Karma.
Since I was so successful with that first scanning, I decided to try again and went looking through old photos. Oh my!! The memories...... I chose to share this one because I remember this day. I was six years old and my baby brother was just over a year old. I vividly remember this day with my Dad......
We were stationed in Goose Bay, Labradore, Newfoundland, Canada. It was a very wild place! There was only one road for hundreds of miles and it ended at a river. Supplies were brought in to the base by sea.... until the bay froze over. Then there were a few supply flights as the weather permitted. We drank alot of powdered milk. It was only about 1200 miles from the Arctic Circle. Winter days were brief and dark. Summer days were seemingly endless and I remember arguing that it couldn't possibly be bedtime at 10:00pm because the sun was still shinning!
I am not sure if it was just my Dad's wanderlust or if it was the trend of the day but he loved to "just go for a ride". I have lots of interesting stories about the crazy places we sometimes ended up but while we lived here, the route was pretty predictable..... there was only one road.
But for some silly reason, I remember this specific day. It was a warm day and the mosquitos were vicious. We did not catch a single fish. The water was up and really noisey. Some crazy guy drove a yellow Volkswagon bug across a narrow bridge that was actually just two logs laid over the river. I got a bit sunburned. It was a good day......
My mother took this picture with her old "Brownie" box camera. It is a classic shot and pose for my Dad. He was tall and lanky. He often sat hunched over with his elbows on his knees. He never wore a tee shirt unless it was a white one under his button up shirt. The shirt always had to be a dull color. No stripes, no bright colors and definitely NEVER any hint of yellow or pink stripes no matter how subtle.
His hair was combed over in front to hide the receeding hair line but... there was no hiding the spot on top.
He never got to be an old man. He died of a massive heart attack at forty eight. He never met any of his grandchildren. He didn't have time to learn to like and respect my husband. We had been married all of two months when he died. I have some good memories and some that are definitely not. If he had lived, I am sure that we would have continued to rub each other the wrong way because that is just the way we were.
Happy Father's Day..... make good memories!!
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