The Locket, fine arts and photography: Father's Day

~E

Happy Father's Day all you dad's! A special wish for my father today! My dad is a brilliant man and deserves some special praise. My dad is wise, confident, and funny and when I think of my father, a zillion stories come to mind. I'm really not sure how this happened, but I think anyone who knew me as a little girl growing up - they'd call me a daddy's girl!

My mom tells the story of when my father entered me in a "beautiful baby" contest and I cried the whole time because I didn't want to wear dress shoes. I ended up winning (which included a free photo shoot) so I guess my dad knew his stuff.

When we open-enrolled to a new school and the bus wouldn't pick us up, I started going with my dad. I ended up going to breakfast with him every day from second grade though high school. Going to "coffee" with Dad meant eating a pancake the size of a large dinner plate every morning while about a dozen older men drank coffee and played liar's poker with dollar bills. It surely seems strange, but those men were so good to me. They threw birthday parties for me, took turns giving me a dollar each day, and always helped me convince my dad to let me order bacon. Some of those guys are still around and even came to my wedding last summer.

I also used to go to machinery sales with my dad each Saturday. It didn't matter if it was snowing out or if it was super hot, I loved to drive in "Old Blue" to farm sales with my dad. It kind of freaked me out, but as we looked through old photos for my dad's recent retirement, we found multiple ones of me wearing a leotard around the farm. There were ones of me climbing in the corn bin and some of me on top of the feed wagon - all wearing leotards??? It was like I wanted to be a girly-girl, but the farm girl kept getting the better of me.

My dad taught at the high school where I attended and while he often embarrassed me, it was a lot of fun to have him around. He'd let me sneak out for lunch with him and I'm quite confident I would have flunked out of high school if he wasn't there to write me passes so I wasn't tardy. I never went to athletic events with my friends, I went with my dad. I particularly remember the basketball game when he wore the ugliest American flag shirt (Garth Brooks style), stood on the stage during the National Anthem and rubbed his chest as if he were the actual flag. No joke.

My dad made an appearance at every school dance and then came home to critique the newest outfits or lack there of...

Enough with random stories! Dad, you'll never see this unless Mother shows (he doesn't have a clue what a blog is, let alone even know how to turn a computer on), but Happy Father's Day! I don't say it enough, but I love you, Dad! I tried to get home to be with my family this weekend, but the flooding kept every route I tried closed.

As I trust my dad's advice before anyone else's on earth, I think he trusted his father's advice too. My 98 year old grandfather passed away this week and I pray that my father can see what a fulfilling life he lived and be thankful for the blessings he provided for our families.

This is my father and grandfather at my brother's graduation two weeks ago. One of my dad's dreams was fix up this old Studebaker truck he bought when I was really little. This was the first vehicle he ever owned and he was really excited for my grandpa to see it.

My grandfather read our Bible passages at our wedding.

Christmas this year.

Easter.

And for fun... When you get to be in your 90's, a huge birthday bash is a must for EVERY birthday. We had a theme each year, from everyone wearing overalls to a Christmas theme. This one was the best: