Happy Birthday and Veterans' Day Dad

Today is my Dad's birthday. I'm not going to tell you how old he is, because first of all, it really doesn't matter. Secondly, he'd wring my neck if I did that! But I AM going to tell you that today is HIS day.

Dad is the oldest of two children. His sister is younger by only 15 months. Rumor has it that they did NOT get along well as children. Their mother, my grandmother is still with us and she and my aunt have shared some tales over the years.

In order to preserve my own future, it would be best if I didn't share those in this forum, but let me just say this....my grandma was one of six. Out of those six children, five got married. Okay, that's pretty "normal" for lack of a better term. Out of those five that got married, ONLY my grandma had children. The other four did not.

When my Uncle Raymond (one of grandma's brothers) passed away over 20 years ago, I just came out and asked her, "Grandma, why do you think that none of your brothers or sisters had any children?"

Without skipping a beat, she simply said, "They all saw how bad my two were and decided that it wasn't for them" and then she laughed.

From what I've heard...that could be true. Not that they were bad, so to speak, but they were just ornery.

There was the fire truck incident...nah, better not share that one.

Then there was the butcher knife episode...nope, that's not one to be shared either.

Of course there's always the story about the...darn, can't tell that one either.

Ironically, when Dad left for the Army, their relationship changed a little, and they became as thick as thieves.

When Dad was 13 he decided that it was time to go out and earn some spending money. He lied about his age so he could get a job working for the railroad. This was just the beginning of his resourcefulness.

While in high school, he was an excellent baseball player, even playing for the local semi-pro team. He played in the outfield, and helped his team win numerous games.

Immediately after he graduated from high school, Harold went to work at a nearby steel mill. When he turned 18 that fall, he was required by law to register for service, and enlisted in the United States Army for one year. Once he returned home, he again worked at the steel mill, until his reserve unit was called back up for the Korean War in 1950. That's when he was sent to Japan. During his two-year stint he suffered from many bouts of tonsillitis and ended up having to have his tonsils removed in an army hospital while in Japan. Now that was definitely NOT fun.

After returning from his two years with the Army Reserves Dad once again returned to work at the steel mill. He was an excellent worker and they kept a job for him each time the Army called him back up.

One day my grandpap saw an ad in the paper for the Ohio State Highway Patrol School, and showed it to Dad. After thinking about it, Dad went to the closest patrol post and filled out the application and took care of the paperwork. In the spring of 1953 Dad entered the academy and the rest is history.

I'm very proud of you Dad...not only have you been an excellent role model for me, but you worked hard for our country, and have always given 110% to everything you've done.

Happy Birthday Dad...and Happy Veterans' Day!

Harold's Ties

In the last post, I alluded to the fact that my dad has a LOT of ties. Tons of ties. TOO many ties. But he is well aware of what he has (and for the life of me, I have NO idea HOW he can keep track of them all!)

Back in 1999 we attended a family wedding in Pennsylvania. As soon as we got the invitation, I knew what was going to happen. Ted does not wear good clothes to work. He wears jeans and pocket t-shirts, along with sweatshirts and hoodies when it gets cold out. Ted is also a pretty big guy, so "normal" size clothing doesn't work for him. He wears extra tall t-shirts, and sometimes has a little trouble finding pants that fit quite right.

In preparing for the wedding, he knew he was going to have to get some new clothes. He went off to the local men's shop the week before our weekend trip to PA. He came home with a pair of nice pants, a dress shirt, a jacket, and a pair of shoes. Okay, so this wedding was going to cost us a little more than what I originally budgeted, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. Let's just say that he never says a word when I spend money on clothes for work, so I sure wasn't going to get all worked up about him spending over $300 (EIGHT YEARS AGO) on some clothes.

The boys were not going to the wedding, but would be staying with A.P. and U.T. and we would leave Saturday morning, attend the wedding, spend the night, have dinner on Sunday with the extended family, then come home late Sunday afternoon.

When Ted got home from the men's store and showed me everything he purchased, he commented that he didn't buy a tie because he figured he could just borrow one from my dad. No problem. I called my mom and we arranged for a time for Ted to take his pants, shirt, and jacket to their house and she would help him pick out a tie, all while my dad was at work.

*Sometimes it's just best not to let Dad know everything*

When Ted came home from this secret meeting, he had two ties with him. We ended up taking both ties along and would make the decision as to which tie to wear at the last minute.

When Saturday came, we drove over to the hotel we would be staying at and met my parents in the lobby, along with a few cousins, and an aunt. We all had reservations and just happened to arrive around the same time. Everyone else was changing clothes and getting ready to go to the wedding. It just so happened that I had a work project that I needed to spend a lot of time on and Ted was really tired, so we decided that we would be going to the reception only.

Several hours later we walked in to the reception hall and sat down with everyone. The place was starting to fill up and we were sitting there talking and having a great time.

My dad kept glancing over at Ted. Finally...he said something.

"Hey Ted, looks like you got yourself some new clothes."

"Yes, I did...this past week. I couldn't wear my pocket t-shirt or they would throw me out."

We all had a big chuckle over that one.

Then dad said, "Where'd you get that tie?"

Ted looked at me, I looked at my mom, she looked at Ted, and then we all looked at dad.

Then dad said, "That's my tie, isn't it?"

We all laughed.

You have to hand it to him....the man knows his ties.