Hop On Pop

My father had a vast tie collection. In addition to “Ghost Tie” he had a substantial collection of what I term as novelty ties. He had cartoon ties, food theme ties and Christmas ties. He often wore his fun ties to church. Forget “pants on the ground”... my daddy stated his rebellion with a good Tabasco Tie.

All the males in my father’s family wore one of his fun ties to his funeral. I felt a part of his rebellion. I still smile inwardly to think that individuals who attended his funeral might hold indignation because Tommy’s family wore those silly ties. If someone holds such a perspective they didn’t know my father very well.

I selected from his collection the Dr. Seuss themed tie “Hop On Pop”. It was a theme that spoke to me. I remember a favorite childhood activity was to wrestle with daddy. In a literal sense we would “Hop On Pop”. In older childhood and adolescence I recall being a part of the ribbing we would give daddy when he would make erroneous noises during his naps. Who doesn’t recall “quit kicking the stamps”. In a sense we took the opportunity to “Hop On Pop”.

In the later months of my parent’s lives we migrated into the undesired yet needed role as “parents to our parents”. Parenting parents has never been or will never be a cherished role. It was unnatural  and upside down. Don’t get me wrong, we did it but it was not cherished. This was a time of life I had no real desire to “Hop On Pop” yet it was called for from time to time.

Today is Father’s Day. It has been a bitter-sweet day. It has been a joy share a meal with my wife and children and have some time to visit. It has also been a time to note this is my first Father’s Day without my father. I miss him. I miss my mom. I’m OK, but I do miss them.

This morning as I dressed to go to church, I put on the “Hop On Pop” tie. A thought dwelt in my heart. The heritage my father has left is now in place. It is what it is...It’s a blessed heritage. It is a heritage of faith and hard work. It is a heritage of family. It is a heritage of helping others. When it comes to heritage, I think I’ll “Hop On Pops”.

A Mother's Prayer

Throughout our lives our mother was faithful to pray for each of her children. It is not uncommon for any mother to pray but mine was an uncommon prayer warrior, especially on behalf of her children.

I shared in a previous blog that we are in the process of cleaning out my parent’s house. My sister has been diligent to minimize the potential of our overlooking pertinent family history or business. One way she has minimized this oversight is to leaf through books and to read letters and notes, particularly handwritten ones.

It is not uncommon for individuals to collect things and my parents were no exception. Among the several “collectibles” my parents archived were notepads. They exhibited a strong competency at maintaining a significant inventory of legal pads, note pads, spiral bound miniature notebooks, etc.

This large number of notepads presented a challenge of stamina because practically every notepad had at least one or two pages of writing. To minimize the potential of overlooking family history or business, time has been spent in flipping through and reading each notepad.

Early in the course of our recent two-day work venture, my sister quietly handed me one of my mother’s notebooks. What was written is self-explanatory.

Auld Lang Syne

I have spent time recently “clouding” a goodly portion of my computer files. Doing so I was reminded of an interesting item.

A class requirement from a few years ago charged each student with producing a "Self Portrait". Its requirement could really be identified as a "life snapshot" as opposed to a true self portrait, but I couldn't argue. It actually became an opportunity to become broadly reminiscent.

As a “non-traditional” student I stood as one of the “more seasoned” members of the group. Laying the events of my “Self Portrait” against the median age of the class I became profoundly aware that the events expressed in my project were only history in the eyes of my classmates. It was one of the more sobering moments of my life.

I thought I’d post this project for today’s blog.