Happy Birthday to my Daddy!

Today would have been my Dad's 68th birthday.  I can't picture him that old-he has been gone now for  14 years and always had the greatest attitude about age.  He said "well, it's just a number and it beats being dead!"  He was always very young at heart and loved life and all that he did in a big way. 

He did many many things over the course of his lifetime

-met my mother when they were 4 years old-her mother was at his mother's house for a church meeting and he pushed her into a creek was the story I heard
-was a Scout as a boy
-got into lots of mischief as a boy
-once shoplifted a Baby Ruth candy bar from a store, was found out, and his father (my Pop) sent him back to pay for it-the evidence had been already consumed and it made such an impression, he NEVER ate another one
-got his pilot's license at 16, before getting his driver's license
-went to Ga Tech
-was in the Navy
-was a Dekalb county police helicopter pilot (when I was little, he came to my school when I was in Kindergarten and brought the helicopter-SO cool!)
-owned and rode a motorcycle-in the 70s-when people just thought gas was expensive-He and my mother would also put me on the motorcycle between them-I did have my own helmet-and we would ride around-can't believe they did that looking back!
-was a commercial pilot-including working for the company that made hamburger buns for Wendy's
-was a plumbing and electrical contractor-I was older when he did this but it was the job I saw him enjoy the most!
-he went to Norcross First Baptist Church his whole life-except while overseas in the Navy and taught a Men's Sunday School class there
-he loved scuba diving-he had learned at Tech and I had no idea the fantastic journey he was beginning for me when he came home from work one day and asked if I would like to learn how to scuba dive
-he loved hunting-mainly things like Coke cans, empty bottles, and broken toilets he had taken out of people's houses-the ceramic does make a very satisfying plinking sound as it disintegrates-He also hunted lots of skeet
-he would do anything in this world to help a family member or friend-I don't remember him missing anything at school for me EVER that was important-no matter how inconvenient it was!


One of Daddy's dreams that always made me laugh was that he wanted to be able to go into a fancy piano store, sit down at their most expensive grand piano and play some really impressive classical piece.  He imagined everyone in the store bursting into wild applause and begging him for an encore.  He was going to say "that's all I know!" and leave the store.  I was going to try to help him accomplish this goal while I was taking piano lessons in high school.  But his hands/fingers were the problem-we joked that he had square fingers-not rounded on the edges at all and they were wider than the piano keys!  I don't think we ever got past about 2 measures of the song!

My Dad loved children dearly!  I remember stories of him playing with children as they watched him working on the plumbing or electricity at the houses and giving them his flashlight that became their favorite while he was there.  I remember how fond he was of a friend's twin boys who were born just a couple of months before he died.  I miss my Daddy for myself but most of all I miss him for our children-he would have made the most wonderful grandfather and enjoyed them SO much! 

Here are some pictures that I have of him!

 Above is a church directory picture-sometime in the 80s

 A Navy picture-according to the helmet

 An early 90s "hunting" trip with Jack (who Daddy met and became friends with on their first day at Ga Tech) behind Daddy, I am the person with enough hair for 5 people, Jim (a longtime Norcross friend-they played football together in high school), Jack's daughter,Kim in the red vest, and Steven in the brown coveralls

 Daddy wearing his Matlock suit as he called it at my cousin Janet's graduation party-Grandmommy is in the hot pink and Mom is on the right

 Daddy with me and Steven in 1990-I was graduating from high school and Steven from college in front of the picture tree in Steven's front yard.

Here is a picture of Daddy as a baby-he always joked that he thought it was funny that all babies wore dresses in the 1940s.  Though we certainly miss having you hear with us, we look forward to seeing you again in Heaven one day, Dad!

 Today we took the kids to a science museum that opened here in March-above they are looking at a display that lights up the different phases of the moon

 Here are the kids and I standing up near the dinosaur skeleton's head

 This Newton's cradle was SO cool to me because my dad's parents-who lived next door to us when I was growing up had a wooden one that I played with when I was little-wonder what ever happened to that?

 The toilets were in a section talking about the progression of technology along with an old treadle sewing machine, a seed spreader, and a refrigerator.  It made me laugh that they felt like they needed the do not sit sign!

 No-I do not know why it looks like there is a seatbelt hanging out of one of the toilets

 Kids "trying on" costumes

Below is the robot at the entrance of the museum that was neat

 Here I am standing under one of the world's biggest fish that is native to the Philippines-the whale shark-we will get to go snorkeling with these while we are here in the Philippines-they can be 40 ft. long and weigh more than 47,000 lb.  I also wish Daddy could dive with us in Asia-he would love all the interesting things we have seen and of course take underwater video of it all!

 In closing Ryan's hair quite often looks like this in the mornings when he wakes up but today he was touching a Van de Graff generator