Fathers day week

Each year, as Father`s Day rolls around, it brings back memories of my Daddy. To this little girl, he was the best Daddy ever. He left us with so many great memories. One of the big memories that stands out in my mind was in 1960 when we took a road trip to Colorado. We didn`t have air conditioning in the car but we had a little ice cooler that you had to keep full of ice and it would give off a bit of cool air every once in a while. We stayed at Holiday Inns and ate picnics on the side of the road! Mother would put a pillow in the back seat between my sister and me and dare us to move across that line!!

Daddy could build anything. He had designed and built a portable table to hook on the back of our trunk for picnics. Mother could make anything look pretty, so she always packed a delicious meal, complete with cloth tablecloths and matching napkins to put on his table many times.. You would have had to know my sister, Anne, to understand that she was a city girl at heart and liked nothing to do with the outside as far as eating was concerned. So, more times than not, she would eat in the car away from any possibility of bugs!!  Then the three of us, Mother, Daddy and me,  would sit around the table hooked onto  the trunk! We usually found picnic areas, but sometimes, we just pulled over to the side of the road.  We always used our table that Daddy made us when it was time to eat.

 

See how happy Anne looks?!! She would come out to get her food then back in the car!!

 

 

The rest of us enjoyed our lunch. Looks like Mother even brought Milk with us to have on this particular breakfast. Don`t you love the hair cut that I have on this trip?!! Sadly, most of our growing up years have these lovely bangs, cut just right!!

We finally made it to Colorado! Here we are at some Dude ranch where we enjoyed the horses and another favorite of Annes, a chuckwagon dinner!! Mother looks so young and styling in her capris! She would have been 31 here, me 6 or 7 and Anne would have been around 9.

Another favorite memory is this Christmas picture of Daddy and me.

Fast forward a few years and it is March 30, 1974.  I woke up on the morning of my wedding, with all of my bridesmaids. (I don`t know how I had talked mother into it with all she had to do, but she and Daddy agreed to let me have all the girls over for the night. We had a last "spend the night party" at my house).... somehow...we all got ready for my big day, there in the basement with one bathroom and 7 girls!!. I don`t remember where everyone else was or how they got there, but I do remember riding in the front seat on the passenger side  with my Daddy in our car,  on the way to the church.   As we pulled out of the driveway, he reached over and put his hand on top of mine for the remainder of the ride. I don`t think we said a lot, but I can still feel the touch of his hand on mind. A reminder of his love that only a Daddy can share with his little girl as he gives her away to be married.  And in remembering this, it is such a sweet reminder of God`s love for His children....

We would have had no way of knowing then that 4 short months later, our Daddy would be gone. Cancer had taken over and he lived only a few months after we heard the diagnosis.

I am  blessed beyond words, that I had the privileg to call this special man my Daddy. I only had him for 20 years, such a short time, but he left me with a lifetime of memories.
Happy Father`s Day, to my Daddy!!
I will love you always....
Jane