Monday, June 21, 2010

Father's Day a day late

Yesterday was not only Father's Day around here, but Son's 18th birthday. With two boys to celebrate, Father's Spin is a day late....

but here we go.

We lost my Dad on December 28th, 2003.

Here are some highlights of his life and fatherhood.

Things I remember...

I was the Tomboy of three daughters. Dad went quail hunting every year and when I was old enough he took me with him. I was the Labrador he never had and he would have me run through the brush to scare up the birds. At the end of the day, he would set up tin cans for me to shoot at for target practice. I loved it and that little 410 rifle he brought for me to use, but I never wanted to shoot at any living creature. The rifle used to belong to my grandmother and she told me when they lived in Texas, before they moved to LA, my grandfather bought her that to shoot the chickens with because she did not have it in her to wring their necks.

When we lived at the mobile home park in Malibu in the late 1960's, dad and I were early risers and would go fishing on the pier on weekend mornings and bring back perch to fry up for breakfast. He taught me how to bait my hook and clean my own fish. Later, when he would want to sleep in, I would head on down by myself and fish in the early mornings.

Skip ahead 20 years and you would find my dad coming to visit me in Hawaii. Once he went out to the nightclubs with me and my friend and sat at the bar drinking while we ran around and danced. My friend and I would come back to the bar to have a drink with him and he would always buy our drinks. One night, a man sitting by him on the bar told him to not let young women use him that way. Dad shook his head and said, "that's my daughter mister. You've got the wrong idea."

My grandparents moved from Texas to LA before my dad was born. He grew up in LA and joined the military during his senior year of high school in 1942 to support the war effort. When he came back, he went to work in the studios as a negative editor and worked his way up to film editor. He claimed to hate the film business and all its pretentiousness. He always thought he wanted a country life and longed to move to central California. Which he finally did when he retired.

Turned out he was more of a city boy than he realized and he was never satisfied with his retired life. I imagine it's like that for a lot of people. You do not appreciate the normal until it is too late.


Remember, you can click on a photo to see it bigger.

1953


1964


1963


1971


1963


19... 84....


1983 Hawaii


Happy Father's Day Dad. Rest in Peace. Love you.

For more Father's Day Spin, head on over to Sprite's Keeper.

29 comments:

Rosaria Williams said...

Sweet! I love that last picture of you and your Dad, so relaxed and happy.

Kristan said...

I love the last picture too. :)

What a lovely tribute to your dad.

tulpen said...

So sweet. Love the photos... and getting to know your Daddy.

Liz Mays said...

Kinda funny that he ended up not liking the quiet life as much. The backgrounds of your photos could have been interchanged with some of our old family photos!

Mama Badger said...

Way too sweet. I love the old pictures, especially the one on the truck. Hopefully everyone raised a glass to Dads, both those with us and those in spirit.

cheatymoon said...

xoxoxo
Love the photos.

Christy said...

So sweet. Love the photos - especially the last one! Happy Birthday to your son too!

Sprite's Keeper said...

That last picture brought tears to my eyes! What a great honor. Happy birthday to the Boy! You're linked!

Brian Miller said...

smiles a wonderful tribute to your dad. and loved the pics...

happy birthday to your boy as well!

Bill Lisleman said...

so he tried a beard look for awhile. Did you like his beard?
thanks for sharing this nice story. He passed on some good life skill to you. I remember shooting a 410 and going hunting pheasants with it. My brother became the hunter.

Maureen@IslandRoar said...

Yes, that last photo is precious!
Such lovely memories, thanks for sharing them. xo

Anonymous said...

He has a great smile! I love the shift between the 1960's and 1970"s hair!!
Thanks for sharing Pseudo- you must miss him so much and wrote about him so well...

Amy said...

Oh what an amazing post about your Dad. What an amazing Dad for sure.. Loved the bar story..

CiCi said...

You have some nice pictures of your dad and a so special one of you and your dad.

Twenty Four At Heart said...

I LOVE the photo with the truck! It's all kinds of awesome! : )

Lori said...

What a sweet testimony of your dad and such sweet pictures...love the one of you and him. Thank you for sharing your dad with us. XX

Nanny Goats In Panties said...

This was a very thoughtful and sweet tribute to your father for Dad's Day. And how fun to be able to go clubbing with your Dad, even if strangers think the wrong thing. Shows how cool your Dad was.

ds said...

Great tribute. I love the photo of you and your dad. You can tell that you were on the same wavelength.

Joanna Jenkins said...

What sweet memories of your dad. He was a handsome guy.
xo jj

Shadow said...

memories to treasure...

ruthibel said...

so sweet

Jan said...

You had a treasure in your dad. I'm so glad you have such wonderful memories of him.

gretchen said...

Love, love it! Beautiful pictures. I love the groovy 1971 look. And the shot of you and your dad in Hawaii. I know how your feel, I miss my dad too. Makes Father's Day bittersweet, right?

Mike said...

What a great tribute! I loved the bar story! LOL

Happy Birthday to your son! I saw the post about him and I was so happy to see things going good for him!

I have not been around in a while, sorry!

Casey said...

I love that you guys had your special time together. And omg, that's hilarious about the guy warning him not to let the young girls take advantage. Too sweet, love the pics.

Two of you in a week? Pseudo, you're lightening up. ;)

Sniffles and Smiles said...

What beautiful memories...word pictures you've conjured here...you always write everything so well... and the photos are treasures! Simply the icing. But I'm so sorry about your dad...Father's Day is a tough time! My heart is with you...~Janine XO

Gal Friday said...

Such sweet photos--thanks for sharing them.
Sorry to learn you lost your father so early--sounds like he was a great person.

Stacy Hackenberg said...

Great post. Some of those photos could almost have belonged to my family, too.

Bernie said...

I love that you were a tomboy. So was I. And the times that you spent with your dad fishing and hunting are such precious memories.
A beautiful tribute---I loved all of it. And the last picture says it all.