A Birthday Remembrance for My Father

OK, Folks, you know the drill. Allright everyone, let’s gather in front of our large, 13″, Black and White TV set, and watch as a tall, lanky man in a khaki uniform strides out, introduces himself as Sheriff John, and pulls out his accordion, and then starts singing the Birthday Cake Polka for grandpa_a:

Put another candle on my birthday cake
We’re gonna bake a birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

I’m gonna have a party with my birthday cake
Come on and take some birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

    We’ll have some pie and sandwiches
And chocolate ice cream too
We’ll sing and play the day away
And one more thing I’m gonna do

I’ll blow out the candles on my birthday cake
And when I do, a wish I’ll make
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

Happy Birthday to You
You’re another year old today.

After singing this, the Sheriff then turns to the audience at home and says, “And now, a word from our sponsor. No, I don’t mean Farmer John Franks. I mean our real sponsor, cahwyguy.

Thanks, John. I’m posting this birthday callout for grandpa_a, knowing full well that he cannot read it anymore. grandpa_a was my father; he died on November 11, 2004. Today would have been his 89th birthday. In honor of this, I asked the Sheriff to come out and sing him a song… and I wanted to repost something I wrote shortly after he died.

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Birthday Wishes for grandpa_a

OK, Folks, you know the drill. Allright everyone, let’s gather in front of our large, 13″, Black and White TV set, and watch as a tall, lanky man in a khaki uniform strides out, introduces himself as Sheriff John, and pulls out his accordion, and then starts singing the Birthday Cake Polka for grandpa_a:

Put another candle on my birthday cake
We’re gonna bake a birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

I’m gonna have a party with my birthday cake
Come on and take some birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

    We’ll have some pie and sandwiches
And chocolate ice cream too
We’ll sing and play the day away
And one more thing I’m gonna do

I’ll blow out the candles on my birthday cake
And when I do, a wish I’ll make
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

Happy Birthday to You
You’re another year old today.

After singing this, the Sheriff then turns to the audience at home and says, “And now, a word from our sponsor. No, I don’t mean Farmer John Franks. I mean our real sponsor, cahwyguy.

Thanks, John. I’m posting this birthday callout for grandpa_a, knowing full well that he cannot read it anymore. grandpa_a was my father; he died on November 11, 2004. Today would have been his 89th birthday. In honor of this, I asked the Sheriff to come out and sing him a song… and I wanted to repost something I wrote shortly after he died.

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It’s Not Quite The Same Thing

This weekend, I’ve finally started work on my father’s autograph collection. I’m entering information on all of his autographs into an Excel spreadsheet, which I’ll then send out to dealers to see if they are interested. I’ve got a number of binders still to process, but I’ve so far entered probably around 900 items: politicians, celebrities, authors, scientists, etc.

This got me wondering: Will today’s kids be asking for, and collecting, digital signatures 🙂

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Birthday Wishes for grandpa_a

OK, Folks, you know the drill. Allright everyone, let’s gather in front of our large, 13″, Black and White TV set, and watch as a tall, lanky man in a khaki uniform strides out, introduces himself as Sheriff John, and pulls out his accordion, and then starts singing the Birthday Cake Polka for grandpa_a:

Put another candle on my birthday cake
We’re gonna bake a birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

I’m gonna have a party with my birthday cake
Come on and take some birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

    We’ll have some pie and sandwiches
And chocolate ice cream too
We’ll sing and play the day away
And one more thing I’m gonna do

I’ll blow out the candles on my birthday cake
And when I do, a wish I’ll make
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

Happy Birthday to You
You’re another year old today.

After singing this, the Sheriff then turns to the audience at home and says, “And now, a word from our sponsor. No, I don’t mean Farmer John Franks. I mean our real sponsor, cahwyguy.

Thanks, John. I’m posting this birthday callout for grandpa_a, knowing full well that he cannot read it anymore. grandpa_a was my father; he died on November 11, 2004. Today would have been his 88th birthday. In honor of this, I asked the Sheriff to come out and sing him a song… and I wanted to repost something I wrote shortly after he died.

Read More …

Share

Birthday Wishes for grandpa_a

OK, Folks, you know the drill. Allright everyone, let’s gather in front of our large, 13″, Black and White TV set, and watch as a tall, lanky man in a khaki uniform strides out, introduces himself as Sheriff John, and pulls out his accordion, and then starts singing the Birthday Cake Polka for grandpa_a:

Put another candle on my birthday cake
We’re gonna bake a birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

I’m gonna have a party with my birthday cake
Come on and take some birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

    We’ll have some pie and sandwiches
And chocolate ice cream too
We’ll sing and play the day away
And one more thing I’m gonna do

I’ll blow out the candles on my birthday cake
And when I do, a wish I’ll make
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

Happy Birthday to You
You’re another year old today.

After singing this, the Sheriff then turns to the audience at home and says, “And now, a word from our sponsor. No, I don’t mean Farmer John Franks. I mean our real sponsor, cahwyguy.

Thanks, John. I’m posting this birthday callout for grandpa_a, knowing full well that he cannot read it anymore. grandpa_a was my father; he died on November 11, 2004. Today would have been his 87th birthday. In honor of this, I asked the Sheriff to come out and sing him a song… and I wanted to repost something I wrote shortly after he died.

Read More …

Share

Birthday Wishes for grandpa_a

OK, Folks, you know the drill. Allright everyone, let’s gather in front of our large, 13″, Black and White TV set, and watch as a tall, lanky man in a khaki uniform strides out, introduces himself as Sheriff John, and pulls out his accordion, and then starts singing the Birthday Cake Polka for grandpa_a:

Put another candle on my birthday cake
We’re gonna bake a birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

I’m gonna have a party with my birthday cake
Come on and take some birthday cake
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

    We’ll have some pie and sandwiches
And chocolate ice cream too
We’ll sing and play the day away
And one more thing I’m gonna do

I’ll blow out the candles on my birthday cake
And when I do, a wish I’ll make
Put another candle on my birthday cake
I’m another year old today

Happy Birthday to You
You’re another year old today.

After singing this, the Sheriff then turns to the audience at home and says, “And now, a word from our sponsor. No, I don’t mean Farmer John Franks. I mean our real sponsor, cahwyguy.

Thanks, John. I’m posting this birthday callout for grandpa_a, knowing full well that he cannot read it anymore. grandpa_a was my father; he died on November 11, 2004. Today would have been his 86th birthday. In honor of this, I asked the Sheriff to come out and sing him a song… and I wanted to repost something I wrote shortly after he died.

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Veterans Day Memories

Since last year, Veterans Day is a special day to me. It is a day that I experienced the death of a WWII Veteran. Someone who served in the US Navy (although I don’t think he ever left US soil), and was proud of his navy service.

Last year, on Veterans Day, my father died, after spending almost a month in intensive care after an automobile accident. You can find the whole story at grandpa_a. Tonight (in advance of tomorrow) I’m reposting two memories, slightly edited.

***

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Chronicling a Life and a Death

Whilst doing the morning tea-cooling reading, I read an interesting post by theferrett about blogs of people that have died. This made me think back to last year at this time when I was calling the hospital daily for the status of my dad. The post on October 26, 2004 said:

Just spoke to Gil, who was back as nurse today. Alas, there wasn’t much to report. He’s about the same. He’s on the norcuron, which has improved his venting. He’s still pretty sedated. He has no fever, and his BP is fine. His hands aren’t quite as swollen.

Gil pointed out that we’re now in the hard period. Right after the accident, we had a lot of news. Now, we’re in the slow healing phase, and we’re likely not to have significant reports until his lungs and ribs heal more. Thus, it’s wait, wait, wait. I hate the waiting, but there’s not much I can do about it.

Possibly this evening I’ll have some photos of the vehicle; I may scan one or two for folks to see.

Again, if you have questions you want me to ask the nurse when I call, please let me know.

Later that evening I received the pictures of the damage to the car. I chronicled the whole thing, from the time of the accident until his death and funeral, on a LiveJournal blog, grandpa_a.

It is amazing how a simple post can bring that all back. I still miss him.

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