My Family, My Dad and My Mom, Love You All

On September 18th of this year, my dad will turn 90, still going strong and still pretty ornery. I know its some time off yet but I think about my dad especially and how we almost lost him some years back. How very blessed we all are that we still have him here. My Mom, who went through surgery, had a little difficulty recovering, she will be 88. I turn 58 this year and I think about my family, My Aunt Janet, now by herself with only her two sons left. She too will turn 90 this December. She has been through a great deal of herself. My cousin, her daughter, passed away about four years ago from cancer. My other Aunt and Uncle are pretty good and my dad's last remaining brother is still around to drive dad crazy as younger siblings do His half sister ,my Aunt Barbra is doing fine as well. My late husband's mother, Pat is doing good as I am grateful for that. I pray every night that we all get to keep everyone for more years to come. I think a lot of people know what I mean when I say that its tough watching your parents grow old but whenever Im around them, I feel like a kid again. I have been looking back on my life a lot, thinking of old days when I was a kid growing up in the seventies and eighties, when 1980 hit , I was about 13. When I was that age, I was more focused on growing up, shoot my great nephew has a girlfriend at the age of twelve. When I was that age, I was enjoying my youth, listening to the radio, recording song off of the radio, playing with my barbie dolls. Wasn't worried about dating then. I will admit I didn't pay too much of attention to the stories my parents told as I was growing up, now I love to her them talk about the old days. I am close to my parents, very much so, but I really enjoy dads stories the most. Not really sure why because both of my folks have had a interesting life. Dad's however has so many facets, everything he did and experienced is over the top. Even mom keeps telling, he should have wrote a book. My father was abused by his step dad and through his tumoil, he was able to pull himself up, learn to play the gutiar, play in a band, be on the radio, make a record, go into The Army, serve in Korea, get his GED, become a seargent ,use his GI bill and become a mechanic. A foot note to that, not only work on cars, trucks, tractors but learn how to work on planes and trains as well. My dad also became a Ohio State Auxillary Highway Patrolman and work as The Cheif of Police for the town of Sunbury. He administered drivers test, which as his kids, we got the full extent of his authority when we learned how to drive. He road tested the first Ford Mustangs back in 1964, worked as a mechanic for Ford in Delaware, which was Humphries then, now its Buyers. He finally settled to work at Buckeye Tractor as we growing up; its gone too now. My son bought a classic Ford Mustang, well a 1988. I posted a picture of him and daddy working on it. I think my son was influenced by the many stories I told about his grandpa. I think of dad's stories a lot especially , what it was like in down town Delaware when he was a young man. I was going through the songs I loved so well over the years. For the most part, I could tell you who sang this song and what year it came out. I have so many bands I love. unfortunately, not too many of today's music or bands. Im big Boston fan but I like many others. You could call me a purest because with the band Journey, Steve Perry is the only lead singer of Journey. My son listens to classic rock sometimes and when I was riding down with them to see my folks and my sisters last weekend. A new band made a remake of Bad Company, well to me the group Bad Company who recorded that song as their title song..is still the best version with Paul Rogers doing the vocals. My daughter on the other hand likes the "Now" music, mostly rap..I guess thats what it is. Not too crazy about that. Now I know how my mom and dad felt, They are country music fans and all the time we were3 growing up, we listened to rock. It wasn't all in vain, my brother and I listened and cherished some country music. Anyway as I was thinking of some of the songs, Journey's "Still They Ride" with Steve Perry came to mind thinking about dad'

s stories of Delaware. He grew up in the city of Delaware while my mom grew up in the country of Delaware. Now not too much is left of country in Delaware, its hard to come by anymore. So I wanted to post the song along with the pictures Im sharing today as a dedication to daddy and all he has expeerienced in his life because3 after all "Still He Rides"