Memory Monday: My Daddy's 100th Birthday

My Daddy in 1917

Casper Office Phone Number

MY DADDY’S 100^th BIRTHDAY

I have been waiting for this month since last year when I was looking at my family tree on Ancestry. Daddy (yes, that’s what I still call him) was born in 1917. He was a baby during the First World War, a soldier in the Second World War,  a husband and father of two and a-half-children during the Korean War (I was born in the middle of that war), and went on to have three more children. He suffered through the death of his last child, who only lived overnight. Later, he saw his children married and loved seven grandchildren, but passed away before his last two were born.

Daddy lived through the loss of his beloved mother when he was only nine, was a protective older brother to his much-loved sister, and learned to live with a step-mother with whom he never had a close relationship.

During the Depression, there were nine people living in his family’s two-bedroom house (it did have a screen-in porch) when his father took in his first wife’s brother and his family. One of my daddy’s chores during that time at night was to cut out cardboard insoles to cover the holes in his father’s shoes so his father could walk to work at a grocery store.

My daddy wanted so much to get a college degree. After high school, he would work 40 hours a week or more, then take a college class at night. He tried doing this over the next eleven years—although WWII did come in the middle of that—but was never able to get enough credits to graduate.

He so wanted to make a success of himself. He tried many different ways to better his and his family’s life. But looking back over what I know of my Daddy, I can see how it never seemed to work out--he was an academically-minded man (think college English professor) trying to become a business success. It never worked out for him.

The thing I remember most about Daddy was his faith in God. At times, he was a weak man. At times, his temper took hold. At times, he said and did things he was ashamed of afterward. But he loved God and was a Christian. After he had a major heart attack and was able to attend church again, people said his prayer brought tears to their eyes.

Yes, Daddy was a man who lived in his time with its wisdom and attitudes—many of which are different in today’s world. He was flawed, but he loved his family. I learned a lot from him. And I love him and he is still very much a part of my life, even though he passed away over thirty years ago.

HAPPY 100^th BIRTHDAY, DADDY.