Like most of the Baby Boomers, I no longer have my father to spend some time with today. Pops would be 95 now and I'm sure that time would have not been good to him. What was good to him was the time he spent with my mother. They laughed traveled and enjoyed life about as well as they could. I can remember being over at their house and Dad would say, "Virginia, would you put some ice in my tea or Would you put some tea ion my ice." Dad took medicines that gave him dry mouth and he almost always had a glass of something near him. After his bout with Hepatitis he didn't drink like he did prior to that. For months after he died, I would start to call him to tell him about a program on TV about planes. We didn't share his love of golf, bowling or Nascar but we both loved to watch things on TV. I'm sure that the program "How It's Made" would be one of his favorites too.
I don't want to make this a sad post, only to say that we all needed our dads even if we were around a non biological dad. I think our next door neighbor, Art Longhoffer was as much of a dad an mine was. I was the son he didn't have and I loved to go out with him to feed his cattle. I'm sure that he would much rather sit in the truck and drink beer while I did most of the grunt work. I was rewarded often with a dinner that was mostly German food that Mrs. Longhoffer would fix. I'm sure that she learned to cook Art's favorite food over the years and I loved every bite of it.
Most of the kids that attended Minneha Elementary in East Wichita attended Kindergarten under Mrs. Longhoffer. I remember it being about as much fun as I ever had in school. We played games, took naps and ate graham cracker snacks. The room we were in had the alphabet in a circle around the middle of the room. Somehow we all wound up learning the alphabet through our play. I loved Mrs. Longhoffer and she treated me well in school.
I am not sure what we will do today but I'm sure it will be somehow involved in getting out and doing something. I'm sure that Barb will take her camera and take some good shots of the wildlife nearby. I can still spot things far off but her eye on the close up details are what makes her photography so special. I am the Macro kind of guy and she is the Micro kind of photographer. Give her a flower with a bug on it and she is happy. I am the one that see's the deer in the middle of the field or the snapping turtle in the yard near the road. She is the one that captures those shots in way I can't.
Our BBQ yesterday went well and we managed to send home a great deal of the leftovers with the Petty's and the Parks. I also found my new favorite cake. Unlike my mother that thought pie was always the best, I have always loved a good slice of cake. Barbara found the recipe for a Chantilly cake. It has fresh fruit between the layers and a cream cheese frosting on top. Man was it good. I managed to snag 2 pieces at lunch and one late night piece. Needless to say, there isn't more cake laying around today.
Do you have any rules in life? I have a few but a lot of how I react is from the things I learned as a kid. I have never been afraid of hard work. I have a lot of good tools and there are few jobs that I can't or won't handle. I like new and shinny things on old cars but have kept one grill bar that is kind of rough to remind me of where I started and how far the rest of the car has come. I would love to say that I have treated everyone the way I want to be treated but many people tell me that I don't seem to notice when others are really having a bad time. I also fall on the side of Justice a lot more than mercy. I am one of those do the crime, do the time. Oh well.
The one thing I have done well is earn a decent income. Throw in Barb's willingness to save our money and it has been a good combination. I won't throw rocks at her income over the years either. She has always made a good income and saved a great deal of that money. I guess we have been a pretty good team over the years. 47 by my count.
I was amazed by one of the articles in the newspaper today. They said that farm income was down by about 10% last year. With the heavy investment farmers have to make, it won't take very many years of that to really hurt. I know a lot of farm wives that are working in schools and offices to help make do. I know that at one time farm property would keep going up and even if they didn't make a lot of money while farming their legacy would leave them pretty well off. The sad news was that with all the hard work a lot of farmers didn't live long enough to see that benefit. Oh well, it is father's day not farmer's day..
Better get rolling and see what is in store for the day.
MUD
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