May 17

Today Russ and I were with Jan and Rex and it is their anniversary. It also is my father’s birthday. If he were still with us he would be 88 today. And it is my cousin Leigh’s birthday.

So May 17 is a big day. My dad was two weeks shy of his 23 birthday when I was born. I can not imagine having a child at that age. So when I was a kid he was young. He was also lots of fun and very funny.

Other people’s fathers were not half as fun. It was one thing about my childhood that was a constant. As he aged he got less funny and I am certain that what I thought was funny and what he thought were funny changed in different directions.

But growing up with a fun loving Dad was great. So on this day that he came into the world I want to remember only the fun parts. One unique thing he created was “children’s day.” Kind of like mother’s and Father’s Day, but for the kids. We never knew when children’s day was going to happen. It was always a surprise.

He would wake us up and tell us it was children’s day and then tell us what adventure was going to happen. It always started with going out for breakfast. You have to understand what a big deal it was to go out to eat for any meal, but breakfast out only happened on children;s day or vacation.

Then we would go some place exciting like mystic seaport, or the car show in New York City, or the circus. It was all fun and the surprises happened all day. Father’s Day was never as great as children’s day. I wish I could go back and recreate something like that for him.

I hope that someday I get to have grandchildren so I can surprise them with children’s day. And I will tell them that their great grandfather invented it and tell them stories about how fun he was.