(If we’re friends on FB, you might remember seeing this about 3 years ago — not that I expect you to remember everything I’ve ever posted… 😉 )
Outings to the Zoo, the museums, the merry-go-round and the train, the beach, the bank, the ferry. Listening to Dad read Alice in Wonderland waiting in the car outside the grocery store while Mom shopped. Semi-annual trips to Disneyland; car trips from California to Wisconsin, by-passing the Grand Canyon because it was out of the way. Family dinners every night. Speed math rounds. Kites. Edmund’s Scientific projects. Heathkit build-it-yourself electronics. Oscilloscopes. Photography — shooting, developing, printing. Working on the car. Watching while Dad fixed whatever we kids needed fixed. Making bullets, going to the range. Watching.
Loving Christmas.
Big Band music. Lectures on economics, politics, mistakes. Instruction. Help and advice only idiots would reject. Strong. Stubborn. Brilliant and independent, authoritarian and irreverent, determined and responsible. He was the most grownup man I’ve ever known and the biggest influence in and on my life, but I had to love him against his will.
I don’t have any pictures of Dad and me together. This one is from Christmas of 1950, before I was born. Dad holding Patty, beside Grandma Jenkins, and Grandma Ranscht.
Space, Time, and Raspberries 
Your memories hit close to home, especially bypassing the Grand Canyon.
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That was hard for all of us, but especially Mom, because she’s the one who asked.
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Oh dear! Poor Mom! Did she ever get to see the Grand Canyon? I finally made it there-March 2005.
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No. Never made it to Wales, either, and that’s the only foreign country she ever expressed an interest in visiting.
I’m glad you made it! Maybe someday, so will I.
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Oh, Sue. What a beautiful portrait of your Dad, painted with words.
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Thank you very much, Jennie!
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My pleasure!
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Love this picture of everyone…I’m sending you some other pics I found that you might not have. Love you sis!
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Thanks! I’m really glad to know you take the time to read my stuff. And I love you, too, Kim! ❤
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lovely words to remember your father.
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Thanks very much!
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It seems like a very honest reflection. Your affection and admiration for your dad and your ability to see all the different, complicated parts that made him up comes across well.
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Thanks, Lulu! I’m always happy to learn how what I write comes across.
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Life throws some major curve-balls. I can see you in your Dad in this picture.
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Yes, hahaha! The resemblance goes deeper than DNA. smh
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Haha! Doesn’t it always?
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