It's said that "in America there are no second acts" And It'd be easy to wrap up this guy's birthday on Memorial Day as "oldest living veteran of Iwo Jima." But it would be coloring a man with only 1 of the crayons in a box that clearly had 64. He was first a "failed rancher/farmer" during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. Although he'd probably say that that was nothing compared to surviving the Spanish Flu that killed more Americans by 1918 than WW1. He would casually discount his multiple engagements in the Pacific Theater with "have you ever met a Marine who landed on Tarawa? Me neither."
For the next 22 years after the war he walked through fire like a Tin foil wrapped Vulcan as a firefighter. Twenty foot flames around engine 54 and his crew on flash practices... Quite a site. Then as a retiree when many of his colleagues went to golf or fish, dad started preparing a nest egg for his 6 kids by rehabbing "fixer uppers," which were plentiful in the 70s of Imperial Beach.
He was conservative with his money but liberal with his love. He rarely gave me what I wanted: name brand jeans and shoes, but he always gave me what I needed... An iron clad work ethic, an education, RV travels across this great continent and at least once we ate "mutton" under the branches where a kookaburra sang. This time of year I see a lot of selfie college grad photos. And that is AWESOME!
But it's important to keep a perspective on the whole journey and remember that none of us pulls ourselves up entirely by our own boot straps. Everything I've ever accomplished was done by squarely standing on the shoulders of a man who dropped out of junior high sometime around the grade where "long division stopped and they started putting Xs in the Mathematics." He gives me hope as a dad because he WASN'T a perfect man and he never stopped evolving and improving himself and the world around him. Happy Birthday Dad. Your life will always be your greatest Memorial
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