Still Kickin'

If you ask my grandfather how he's doing, he'll probably say "I still kickin'." Today is his 83rd birthday.  And after 83 years, a World War, a career as a Virginia State Police Captain, three bouts of cancer and the shenanigans of three sons, I think "still kickin'" is a pretty good answer.

For Father's Day this year, I gave Granddaddy a book of questions and prompts so that he could record all of his stories and wisdom.  The last time I saw him before we went to the beach, he showed me the progress he'd made and then pointed me to suitcase easily older than me that was so full of pictures it wouldn't close properly.  He told me to pick out the ones I wanted to put in the book; I filled a shopping bag.  Below are a couple of my favorites that were large enough to feed through the scanner.  The coolest and oldest ones are so small (maybe 1" by 2"), so I'm going to have to invest in a flatbed scanner to capture them.  It'll totally be worth it. Let's just say photography has come a long way.

Happy Birthday, Granddaddy!

The first two are of a young Herbert in the Navy during World War II.  Some of my favorite stories, or the ones I've heard enough to recount in vivid detail, are from this time.  Like how he "volunteered" to go ahead to the Isle of Capri, or how he used to pawn his watch to buy a train ticket home to see my grandmother for the weekend.  He's on the left in the second picture.

Granddaddy playing baseball as a young man.  How they made baseball cleats when they could only afford one pair of shoes is another of my favorite stories.  

A very young Herbert and Hildegarde.  I've got a bunch of these to scan.  These are definitely my favorites.

And present-day Granddaddy and Jackson at the beach last week.