Saturday, May 3rd was Derby Day. But the real excitement for me was it was my father's 86th birthday. That is a landmark.
I started my day by posting these pictures I had on my computer of Papa's life. I wanted his family to see these and remember a bit. Papa is not on Facebook so he only saw them because I shared them with him.
This first picture was taken in 1948. Papa was a lineman for the telephone company before he met and married Mimi. He kept his spikes in the garage for years after he did this work. I remember those spikes hanging there.
This picture is my parents right after they were married in 1949. This is Papa's favorite picture of them and we have it hanging in his living room so he can see it all the time.
I have no idea when this picture was taken. I can tell by the background that it was taken at the farm where Mimi's parents lived in Starks, Louisiana. Papa is holding a gar, which is a fish, he caught. The garage has an old truck in it. The fencing was the corral where a mule was located and a very huge bull.
This picture I remember enjoying as a child. Again, no idea when it was taken but I always loved that my parents were so happy in it and enjoying one of those 'return-to-your-youth' moments.
This is my father holding me as a baby in 1951. I was born in July 1950 so I wouldn't be more than a year old. I am thinking it might have been taken on their trip to the temple to be sealed.
Papa loves his family. His has nailed to his living room wall a piece of sheet rock which he uses as a bulletin board. On this bulletin board he has thumb tacked pictures of all his family. He derives a huge amount of pleasure out of looking at his family. These next pictures are of him with a few of his grandchildren. All the pictures were taken in Shreveport, Louisiana. The grandchildren are Nissa (my oldest child), then Kim, Kristi & Dan (Junie's children). There are actually two pictures of Kristi. In the second one of Kristi and Papa she is putting his hair in pigtails. Papa loved to let us kids comb his hair. I do not believe all that combing is what made him bald on top though. As of this writing Papa has 14 grandchildren and 26 great grandchildren with two more on the way.
I like this picture. Papa is holding his new ball glove. He would be listening to music on that nifty stereo behind him. Very high tech for its day. That music would have been one of three kinds: classical, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or country music. The picture also reminds me of Papa watching a football game on television while listening to one on the radio and another one on another radio all the while appearing to be asleep. When all games were done, he could tell you exactly what happened in each. I never was able to wrap my mind around that ability. He loved watching football though. The glove helps me remember that he coached us girls in the Baptist girls softball league because he wanted us to have that opportunity. We had a nice team of girls from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Baptist League. Junie was the pitcher and I was the catcher. Papa also refereed for SPAR (Shreveport Parks and Recreation) after us girls were gone to earn extra money. The ugly scars on his shins are proof of the balls that hit his poor legs that have very bad circulation. Mom made his ref uniforms some of the time. Those are just a few of the memories this picture brings to mind.
Papa's siblings: Herman Harold (I call him Uncle Harold and Papa calls him Herman), Vernon Lawrence (Papa), Wendall (Uncle Salty) and Uncle Marvin. Aunt Vera is in front. Papa calls her Sis. All are deceased except Papa. He was a late-in-life baby.
My parents loved to square dance. Mimi made their square dance outfits. Papa learned how to call a square dance. I remember being a little girl and going to some place in DeRidder, Louisiana that was like a large conference room with a stage at one end and playing around the edges while Mimi and Papa and lots of other people in squares around the room danced. I loved square dancing myself and totally enjoyed a rainy day in elementary school when our teacher would moved the desks back from the back of the room and we would square dance our recess time away.
Claude and I lived in Denver, Colorado for 8 1/2 years. At one point Junie, who was married to Steve and they had Kristi, came to visit at the same time Papa and Mimi came with Neffie. We spent a day in the mountains having a picnic. Left to right: Junie, Papa, Neffie, Mimi and Sandi. Not a bad looking lot.
It is no secret to anyone that Papa loves music. Only certain kinds of music and he is vehemently opposed to others. The first picture is Papa playing his guitar and singing at a church social. The second was taken at Signature Health Care, the nursing home Mimi was in. Please note he played the guitar and the harmonica at the same time and then would sing while playing the guitar. Papa had a band when we lived in DeRidder, Louisiana and they did a radio program each week. Many is the night we had the jam sessions to practice in our home. Papa ran the Keithville Jamboree after the Louisiana Hayride closed down. He had other bands after we moved to Shreveport. Today his has the back room in his apartment as a music room. He has given away a few of his guitars and harmonicas to grandchildren and children. But he still has several to play at his leisure as well as a fiddle and mandolin. I sang with him at the nursing home but we now just play DVD's of old country music.
Papa had dogs as a child but they were outside dogs and used to hunt for food for the table. He loved those dogs though. When we were kids, he raised beagles to sell as hunting dogs. The first picture is Papa with King of Carrol, a registered beagle and father of the beagle puppies Papa raised. I remember him having a rabbit skin tied to a string tied to a fishing pole. He would go out in the morning dew and drag that rabbit skin over the grass in the back yard. Then he would let the beagle puppies out to track the rabbit scent. We had a big English Shepherd named Ben Patch-eye when I was a child in Shreveport. He was such a gentle dog but fiercely protective of us girls. He was also an outside dog. Then one day while Papa was on the road driving long-haul moving vans, Mimi brought home a Toy Manchester puppy and we had an inside dog from that point forward. Papa came home from his run and never said a word. He just knew that with a wife and three daughters who had fallen in love with Priscilla Mantha-Maybelle, he would just learn about having inside dogs. After Prissy passed, Papa got Mimi this little toy poodle named Bitsy. That is Bitsy as a puppy in Papa's pocket. It would be followed by Benji, another toy poodle in the creamy colored version. Today it is Tiny who is Papa's faithful companion. This picture was taken in Shreveport, Louisiana.
My parents moved to Kentucky a year after Claude and I retired to Kentucky. Mom had Alzheimer's and was at a point where Papa needed help caring for her. This was taken after she was moved to a nursing home. But she was still ambulatory and we brought her out to the house as least once a week. I would cut her hair and style it for her. We would have a nice meal together. Mom would roam the main level and move things around. This was Papa dancing with her again. She could remember how to do that. Tiny is watching them. This picture was taken in our home in Sadieville, Kentucky. Tender moments. Treasured time together.
This picture is Papa napping on my sofa. This is his spot because he can stretch out and give that bad arthritis in his back a rest. Tiny sitting right beside him is so typical.
I talked with Papa before his birthday. I asked him what he would like for a meal, dinner at our home or a trip to his favorite Mexican restaurant. He chose the Mexican restaurant. I choose not to be offended by that. I like their shrimp quesadilla and am quite happy to dine there. I also asked Papa what he would like for a birthday cake, chocolate or lemon. I knew he likes both and thought he should get to choose. He chose lemon. Since he drinks one chocolate Slim Fast each day, he thought he would rather have the taste of lemon. He particularly likes a lemon bundt cake from Kroger. Bless his heart, I didn't have to bake, I just purchased from Kroger.
Papa enjoyed his meal very much. I mentioned to our server that it was Papa's 86th birthday. After we finished eating, he brought Papa and great looking dessert...and the perfect hat to match the occasion.
After enjoying dinner, we headed to Papa's apartment for a piece of lemon cake. I left two more pieces for Papa to enjoy over the next two days. With the Dr. Pepper at lunch, the Mexican dessert provided by Camino Grande and lemon cake from me, this was a major deviation from his no-sugar diet with his diabetes. But you only have an 86th birthday once and living that long you should have some pleasurable experiences. Just don't tell Dr. Weckman!! Now we'll behave on the diet.
We gave Papa the biography of Pres. Thomas S. Monson for his birthday. He was very happy. It was a good day for Papa.
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