~Remembering Dad ~

April 14th was my dad's birthday, he was born in 1937.

Dancing with Dad, 9/14/91

My first memory of him was right around my fourth birthday.
Mom held a party at our house and I was so excited that dad was going to be there.
Since my parents were divorced for two years already, we never knew if he could (or would), make it to an event on a non-custody day.
He showed up and brought me what ended up being my favorite gift. A Yosemite Sam shirt! I hardly remember much about gifts of events from my childhood, but that visit and shirt are burned into my memory as one of my favorite memories.
                                                             It looked something like this:

My weekends with Dad usually meant going to church on Sunday morning. He brought us (my brother and sister went,too) to Woonsocket Methodist Church of Woonsocket,RI.
It was there I first heard about Jesus and how much He loves me. I learned the song, Jesus Loves Me, and got gold stars from Mrs.Edna each week I went. I absolutely loved going to church and learning about God. Dad was friends with the pastor, and they hung out after church.It was cool. After the pastor left the church, Dad stopped going. I missed going, but spent time with Dad at his house on weekends,sometimes overnight. He worked a lot of hours, but it didn't seem he ever got ahead. He just always looked tired.
I would climb up on his lap and hold his worn hand in mine. I didn't care about the tobacco odor, it was my Dad. He played games like Indian sunburn on my wrists and crunched my little fingers in his, not to hurt, just playing. We didn't talk much, he was pretty quiet as he sipped his coffee and listened to the volunteer fire scanner. There were several times he rushed out the door at odd times of the day or night. We knew from the signals what type of call he was going to. The night of the big mill fire in town brought out most of the small town of Millville. We went and watched nervously as the structure burned violently for hours. He didn't get back til much after we were already asleep.
  I think he seemed glad to go on a call to get out of the house and do something he enjoyed.

This is an entry in progress..I will continue this blog as I get my thoughts together about what say next