Storyteller

Dad would be 77 years old today. That's him there in the picture, getting a kiss from Mom on their 50th wedding anniversary. Around him are his five kids and our spouses. He was happy when we were together, he liked having his chicks come home. Dad was a storyteller and he had a rich terrain of history that he carried with him. That history came out in stories that took you there to the place he was telling about. Dad's grandfather homesteaded the house that Dad grew up in, lived in all his life, and where he took his last breath. Visitors to his home got to hear stories and see the pictures and antiques, and rooms where some of those stories happened. And even though I grew up there too, knew that place and those things, when Dad told a story I listened, even if I'd heard it before, because he loved the telling and that made me love to listen. 

Dad's been gone six years, but all his chicks and grandchicks and the people of Condon remember him and smile. He was that kind of guy.