We Miss You Dad….

It Fathers Day again and I’m thinking about my dad. My mood is somber as I remember all the wonder times we had with him. Mom and Dad got married in Jan. 1948. The next year they bought a house on the south side of Houston, Texas. It was a small post WWII house. There was no air-conditioning back then so the houses facing the North had small porches on the front and a screened in porch on the back. It was a two bedroom house with one bathroom, about 1,100 square feet. That was supposed to be a starter house, but it ended up being the house my dad died in. He took in the back porch and made a third bedroom out of it. He and mom raised 4 children there. Yes, it was very cramped but we didn’t care, we didn’t know there was anything different.

I’ll never forget all the fun times we had in that house. Dad built us a “Jungle Jim” in the back yard. We would play out there for hours climbing all over it. During the summer, we would go down to Galveston Island on the weekends. We would swim, build camp fires on the beach, cook hot dogs, scour for treasures in the sand, sleep in a tent and just have a wonderful time together as a family. Mom didn’t like the camping out part much, but she went along with it. During the school year we would go to the drive in movies on Friday night. You could get in for $1.00 a carload. We would have hot dogs for dinner that night and Dad would pop popcorn and put it in a grocery bag for snacks at the movies. When my brother turned 8 yrs old, my Dad decided to be the manager of his little league team. We would go to the games and all of us had a job to do. I helped my mom keep the official score book. My sisters would wait behind the outfield fence and bring in foul balls for free snow cones. We had many a fun night at the ball field. I’m certain that is why I love baseball so much.

In my teenage years, I was a girl scout. I loved camping and hiking. One year they had a camp out where all the dads were invited to come. We were at camp Robinson and most of the girls dads didn’t come because of work. My dad was there and he had fun cooking with us and doing what ever was planned. I’ll never forget the fun we had. My dad was good at trying to be there for us. When I was older and married and had a family of my own, he would go on vacation with us. He grew close to my children and he was a good “Grand-Bobby”. He really did love us, he was there for us until the day he died. I’m not saying that everything was perfect because it wasn’t. But all in all I feel very blessed to have had my dad. I know that I will see him again someday in the eternities. I pray that he is with us in spirit always. I love you, dad.

Check out these other blog posts to learn more about my dad.
http://lucysfrugalliving.blogspot.com/2005/06/vacation-close-to-home.html

See a picture of dad on this one:http://lucysfrugalliving.blogspot.com/2005/05/he-stole-my-blog.html