Sunday, March 09, 2014

Happy birthday, daddy!

 
 
Unbelievable to think that today would have been my father's 86th birthday.  Even more unbelievable that he's been gone for 25 years now.  Daddy was just the best daddy ever (in my opinion), and not a day goes by that I don't miss him.
 
So, in honor of his birthday, here is the second annual compendium of fun facts about my dad:
 
1.  Daddy only spanked me twice in my entire life; he left disciplining me up to my mom.  The two times he felt compelled to discipline me, I knew I was REALLY in trouble!
 
2.  He was the oldest of nine children and shared his first name with his father.  His father had no middle name, but to differentiate the two, grandpa  was "Ed, Sr."
 
3.  He collected stringed musical instruments:  guitars, violins, banjos, etc.  He had nearly 100 of them when he died.
 
4.  Every Valentine's Day, he gave my mom one of those old-fashioned heart-shaped boxes with chocolates inside.  When I was little, I always got a stuffed animal!
 
5.  Daddy was very generous--he would have literally given the shirt off his back if someone wanted or needed it.
 
6.  He bought a burnt orange-colored suit in the 1970s.  He never wore it because my mom made fun of him.  Thank goodness she did; he would have looked like a pimp in it!
 
7.  He rarely ever had properly fitting shoes when he was growing up--if he had shoes at all.  As an adult, he had recurring nightmares where he would be in a public place and look down and would have no shoes.
 
8.  Daddy loved to talk...to anybody!
 
9.  As fun and friendly as Daddy was when he was off work, he could still be a bit of a tyrant at work.  He wanted everything to be orderly and well-functioning at work, and if someone interfered with that, he could get cranky (to put it mildly).  His personal friends never believed it when mom would tell them about this side of his personality.
 
10. Daddy was in the army and earned his GED while he was enlisted. 
 
It makes me really sad that it's getting harder and harder to remember details about my father.  25 years is a long time to be away from someone.  I can remember his voice anymore either.  I do remember that the last words he ever said to me were, "I love you."
 
The feeling was, and is, mutual!

1 comment:

  1. That's sweet....The Valentine's Day stuffed animal made me smile.

    ReplyDelete

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