Dad's Birthday - 86 Years Old

November 24, 2008 Monday

Dad turned 86 today.

I was kind of busy working most of the day and then had a tennis game with The Kid in the afternoon/evening, but I got to spend some quality time with Dad today. We had the chance to chat over coffee in the morning and again after dinner.

At about 2:00 PM though, he got a great surprise.

A gang of his Marine League buddies dropped in for a surprise birthday celebration.

They even brought a cake.

The Cake

The Guys

Billy, Bill, Jesse, Carl

(I guess in these tight economic times they could

only afford the one candle.)

Bill (half cut off), Jesse, Carl, Billy, Doc, and My Dad

Tom, reading the cards...and you know the rest of the guys.

Dad was delighted to see his comrades, as you can see here.

He had a great time.

With Dad's Macular Degeneration, getting the candle lit

was a major accomplishment.

I guess it was really lucky they could only afford the one candle...

Dad Holding Court

There were lots of stories flying around and Dad held his own.

The Gang's All Here

Jesse, Carl, Billy, Bill, Doc, Tom, & Dad In The Foreground.

These men, as I've said before when writing about the Marine League guys, are fabulous guys.

And, without exception they show a lot of respect for my Dad. They understand his military career....what he did and what he lived through. Many had similar experiences while others never left the U.S. But either way, the repect and admiration for "The Colonel" is palpable when they're together.

I am extremely grateful to all of them for looking out for Dad, taking care of him, and, in particular, for stopping by to wish him a Happy Birthday. It made his day.

Of course as your Dad gets older and starts having physical ailments, you wonder how long you'll have with him. No one lives forever. And, in turn, that makes you think about your life and your relationship with your Dad.

My relationship with my dad? Let me put it this way. I didn't have a "normal" childhood. Why not? Because my Dad was a Marine Corps Fighter Pilot.

He could land a Corsair on a tiny aircraft carrier deck on a pitch black night with the wind howling out of the China Sea. He wiped out aircraft batteries in the Solomon Islands and protected our soldiers, his comrades, near the Chosin Reservoir in Korea. He survived in a stormy sea in a leaky life raft and again behind enemy lines in Korea where the enemy were hunting him down. He drove planes with deadly weapons on them and with virtually no electronics at 300 miles per hour by the seat of his pants. He had to crash land one in the ocean and jump out of another just to stay alive.

Later he turned rugged mountains and deep canyons into a luxurious country club and housing developement. He took 2 years off to travel the world as an ambassador of goodwill as a District Governor for Rotary International. He set out on his 48 foot ketch one day to sail around the world...was at sea about 6 months, decided he didn't like that life style, but got his skipper's license and turned his passion for sailing and the sea into a business as a charter boat skipper.

If course there's much, much more, but you get the idea. He lived life on his terms at full throttle.

You don't have a "normal" childhood with a Dad like that. Of course I didn't know it wasn't a normal childhood until much later in life. After all, it's the only childhood I had. And, it was a good one.

As we were chatting after dinner I asked Dad what his favorite time of life was. "With all of your adventures and accomplishments and good times and bad, what part of your life do you look back on now with the fondest memories - what time of your life was the best for you?" I asked.

With only a moment's pause for thought, he said, "High School."

At first I was surprised. But on reflection I'm not. He was hell bent on accomplishing all he could way back then, too. Football star, captain of the team, working hard to get good grades so he could go to college. In the summers he worked as a counselor at the Woodcraft Ranger Camp at Lake Arrowhead where he was helping shape the lives of hundreds of young men. I bet if we could find some of them after all these years they'd remember Dad with gratitude for what he taught them.

High school, after all, is the last time you can really be accomplishing a lot and seeing the accomplishements and having a great time while still living at home with your family and having few "real world" worries and responsibilities.

It makes you think.

I'll only be here for a few more days, leaving the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

As I was talking to Dad last night after dinner, my heart was filled with pride in him...for all he has done and for all he is. It is also heart breaking to see him struggle mightily just to get up out of chair now. But if it is humanly possible for him to do, he'd die before asking for help doing it.

Life takes its toll, even on Marine Corps Fighter Pilots.

I was also filled with gratitude that I was raised by such an extraordinary man who set, by example, extraordinarily high standards. Also that we have a great relationship. Not that it didn't have some minor bumps and turns from time to time, it did.

And grateful, too, that I have been able to spend these last several weeks just hanging with Dad and being able to help him a little bit at this time of his life when he's not so independent as he'd prefer to be and when, for the first time ever, he really needs some help.

Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you.