Happy Birthday Dad!

me and dad -needles, feb. 2012

On this day, 61 years ago my dad was born to my grandparents Bill and Margarita. The year was 1952  a lot was happening that year. The average wage at the time was $3,850; the average cost of a home was $9,050; the average cost for a gallon of gas was $.20; the average cost of a new car was $1,700. That year Queen Elizabeth became queen stepping up for her father, King George IV, after he passed away. Polio was still a major concern for many. Mother Theresa opened up the first Home for the Dying in Calcutta. Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced Britain has their own atomic bomb. A live atomic bomb test was shown live on television from Yucca Flats, Nevada. California had it’s second largest earthquake. “The African Queen” and “Singing in the Rain” were among the  popular films at the time. Sharon Osborn and Christopher Reeve were also born that year.

My relationship with my mom covers, of course, the more “girly” things – some shopping now and again, talking about boys and dating, etc. My dad and I, well we talk sports – not football though – I reserve the football and basketball talk for my mom. Nope me and dad we talk about soccer, cycling and a few motorsports, but not NASCAR. My dad likes the rally races, motorcycle races, etc. Soccer is our favorite naturally. That’s how I got into that sport was because of my dad. I started at age five and continued until college. I loved it! Some of my best memories are of us hopping in the car and heading to tournaments, especially one in Las Vegas when I was fifteen.

Dad never coached any of the teams I was on, but that never stopped him from coaching me. I think it worked best that way because I may not have listened as well if he’d coached my team. Man I loved those days. Game day was always the best with the parental units on the sideline and me getting in a good game. Great times.

Music is the other big topic for me and dad. We’ll spend hours talking about the various new music we’ve discovered and what we like about it. We’ll both make a special phone call to each other just because we heard a new artist (at least new to us) on Pandora or other radio. We’ll get to talking for quite a while about how excited we are for the new music or artist. More good times.

The latest thing we have in common now is photography. He’d been getting into it for several years but I came into it later. I started in on it because of my work as a reporter. I had to learn to take my own photos and be able to help tell the story with them for the job. I finally bought my own camera and it started from there. Now I have to two consumer cameras that do very well, courtesy of my dad. One of my more recent fond memories is when dad came to visit me in Needles a year ago. I got to take him to the boat and car show out here and going around taking photos together was a great time. Even though it was our last day together, our day spent in Las Vegas was great – just taking our time and getting a bunch of photos and seeing our differences in how we viewed things.

Through the years he and my mom raised me right, teaching me the skills I’d need to get along in this life. Some skills I’m still learning but some of that I had to do on my own anyway. So, thanks dad! I love you very much and again – Happy Birthday!

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