Happy Birthday Elwood

Today is July 16, 2008. This would have been my dad's 65th birthday. He's been gone for almost 19 years but there isn't a day that goes by that I don't still think about him.

Darrell and I like to think that Oaklen takes after my dad, although we don't have any baby pictures of my dad. Oaklen has the same shape face and eyes as he did, and possibly some of the same mannerisms.

Memories or things I miss about my dad:
* The big "daddy bear" hugs when he'd come home from work smelling like he had worked a long hard sweaty day.
* His legs - he used to wear short shorts to show off his great legs. Some of the shorts were so short that the pockets would hang out of them!
* As he would tuck me in, he'd tickle my tummy and do a sort-of Donald Duck noise with his mouth.
* Whenever he'd tuck me in at night, before turning off the light and shutting the door he'd put up his two fingers up (like the number 2, or bunny ears) and bend them up and down.
* Snuggling on his bed, watching Star Trek and listening to him laugh with his whole body shaking.
* His belt. He always had a cool belt buckle and a leather belt with "Elwood" or "Woody" engraved on the backside.
* He'd often wear cowboy boots, and sometimes his black cowboy hat.
* I loved his waffles. He'd use applesauce and make them really soft & heavy. I had mine with margarine & syrup but he'd put a fried egg in-between his two waffles and eat it with syrup on top.
* He didn't do my hair too often but when he did, he'd put my hair in "piggie tails" and twist it so hard it'd make my eyes squint.
* He taught me how to ride my bicycle. After I had learned for some time over at the high school parking lot, I went down the hill on my street and kept pedaling the whole way. He kept yelling "Coast, coast!" But I didn't know what the word "coast" meant. I ended up falling into Jensen's bush down the street because I couldn't control myself. :)
* My friend Tracee always said that my dad was the only one that could tickle her. She wasn't ticklish otherwise.
* The smell of sawdust reminds me of him. I'd sometimes be in the "shop" with him while he was working on something and I'd love to pick up the cool "quarters" that were on the ground from the electrical outlets and play with them. (The round metal discs that would come out of metal electrical boxes.)
* He used to drive an old blue Datsun truck
* He loved Snickers bars
* While driving he would sometimes open the door to spit on the road. Eew.
* I'd be riding in the truck with him and he'd reach over to tickle my knee & thigh, then he'd have to over correct the steering wheel.
* He had a pair of pajamas that my mom gave him that had kisses all over it. He'd wear them for valentines day and Christmas.
* On St. Patrick's day one year I tried to pinch him since he was only wearing his blue robe, but then he pulled out a sock from the pocket on his robe with a green stripe on it!
* I remember his permed hair. My mom gave him a couple of perms in the 80's.
* He got a black eye by dropping a wrench on it while he was fixing/preparing our van to travel across the country. All the vacation pictures have his black eye.

Here are a few random pictures of him. I was able to get some pictures from the earlier years from my Aunt. These are the only ones I have.