A Special Day!

It certainly was a day to celebrate – my dad’s 90th birthday! 

  
He’s a veteran of World War II with a purple heart (that’s him in the middle there),

and as charismatic now as he was back in the day!

As I’ve mentioned here before, he favors the character Rhett Butler from “Gone with the Wind,” 

And he married Scarlett,

of course,

which happens to be my mom… ;)

Their lives would make for an epic novel, no doubt about it!

 
Well, all of these aren’t “Rhett,” in character, so to speak, but here’s some pictures of Clark Gable…

 

And my dad…

 

My parents do resemble the actors a bit,

but what’s more, they remind us of Rhett and Scarlett!  :D 

He’s an amazing guy, my dad.  

He has a way about him – a classic southern gentleman to be sure.

He exudes charisma & could charm the birds from the trees!

 

He never meets a stranger, and with his quick wit, he manages to get a grin out of just about anyone, even if they’re the most dedicated sourpuss.  

He and I share a number of interests like history, collecting old recipes, a love for cameras and preserving memories , a love of nature and God’s creatures… 

This little puppy’s name was “Pandora” and he is bottle feeding her.

Now my dad doesn’t always think inside the box, “Pandora’s box” I’ll say, when it comes to his pets…

Where typically most people think dogs or cats with pet ownership, he does too, but not quite like you would imagine.

This is his idea of a house cat…

 

His “house cat” was an ocelot named “Savage.”  Savage liked girls.  My dad tells me that Savage would crawl up next to them and go to sleep like a kitten.  On the other hand, he didn’t much care for men, but he respected my dad.  My dad did a lot of traveling across the country, and Savage went too.  What a sight it must have been to see Savage sitting up in the back dashboard of my dad’s car!  

Other unusual animals that I remember my dad having are peacocks and a variety of exotic birds in his backyard by the lake, and llamas across from his house, which were really cute!

I love my dad’s zest for life, and there is a lot to be learned by it.  He doesn’t let challenges get the best of him, and his attitude reflects that there is too much to enjoy in life than to focus on the negative.  Optimism is his forte! 

Daddy and I both live 20-25 miles outside of town, in opposite directions.  So we typically meet each other in town for lunch when we can. 

After 3 course lunches, he with his iced tea and then coffee, and I with my iced tea and lots more iced tea, we linger a while.  Then we usually sit in his car and visit some more.  He always has interesting things to show me and tell me about.

 

All that to say, I’m so blessed to be able to celebrate this 90th birthday with him and it is with great joy!  A picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a picture of him on that special day!  

With much love I celebrate my dad, who is so dear to my heart!