Happy Father's Day!!! My dad passed away in 1983 and I miss him very much. He was a quiet man and all my brothers seem to have acquired that trait, as well as some of the grandsons. We women are all chatterboxes. Dad was an only child (of an only child) and as a result, probably spoiled a little, well probably a lot! He had a great childhood, went to Culver Military Academy as a teenager and was headed off to Annapolis (I still have his appointment letter) when his grandfather died, his father died and then his grandmother. One after another. Annapolis never happened and dad became a "gentleman" farmer. The house I was born in, in Lancaster, Ohio actually had a name - "Concord Hall". My great-grandparents purchased the house in 1903 and my folks sold it for a pittance in 1949 as they had decided to relocate to California. One day I will blog about the house as it has an interesting history.

Once we finally settled in Crescent City, California (See an earlier blog about my parents first trip before I was born) my dad bought the Western Auto Store and while my elder three siblings were raised to dress for dinner and speak when spoken to, my life was a lot easier. Dad had been married to what my mom called a "society girl" before he married my mom. However, mom was one of 12 farm kids born in a real working farm. Living at Concord Hall with my grandmother, who had some rigid "rules" on behavior must have been difficult for her.

My folks bought a nice house on 20 acres in the country and when not running the store dad could be found riding his John Deere tractor around, cutting grass, plowing, etc. Still, and always, the gentleman farmer.

I've been scanning old pictures for posterity and added a couple of scrapbooking pages to my collection. In Dad's memory:


Click (twice) to increase to full size



I'll be doing more pages as I go along with the scanning and improve my scrapbooking and photoshop skills.

Hope everyone has a nice Fathers Day.

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