Father's Day

Bart called me bright and early and wished me a happy Father's Day. I am not sure if anyone can understand how much my family means to me. If I can put God first, family second, work third, and everything else after that I will have a successful life.

I have been blessed with a great Father. Daddy has worked hard all his life, has battled cancer twice and beat it, he loved vacation time because we did stuff together with no distractions. Mama always said, "we are never doing this again." Thank goodness Daddy always won out because I have so many fond memories of our vacations.

I remember he hiked the Odom Scout Trail with Henry and me. We got the medals but I got a lot more from that than a medal; a hike in the mountains of the Talladega National Forest with my Daddy. Daddy just got to be tired but he never once winced. I learned a lot from my Daddy. He was not perfect but none of us are but he loved us and took care of us.

I guess if I had a time machine I would go back and do some things different in life but one thing never ceased and never will and that is the fact that I love my sons and and now their wives and children. I love my Mother and Father and siblings. I am truly blessed this Father's Day.

I now have fond memories from our family vacations when Bart and Brad were growing up. The best advice I could give to someone is to remember just a few things. They were the unwritten rules for our family. Go to Sunday School and Church on Sunday, eat Sunday Lunch out as a family, eat Sunday Dinner at home and let them bring whoever they want with a bit of advanced notice of course, and take a family vacation to someplace new and different every year.

Thanks to Daddy (and Mama because we knew she was just putting on when she said no more vacations) I got to see Washington DC, panned for gold and for rubies, went with him to Summer Camp and ate at the Cherokee Restaurant, went up in the gateway arch in St. Louis, (oh yeah he let Sarah take that dang rat Boo on one trip), we saw Monticello, Mount Vernon, you get the idea. Vacations were fun but I grew from them. God Bless our Fathers.