My Dad as a preschooler.

Daddy as a student at Locust Grove School – a one-room school that is a residence today and right next to our property. He told me that he didn’t enjoy school very much and would have preferred working on his parent’s farm – the Homestead next to us that is in many of my pictures.

I pulled this from a family picture, taken during the summer of 1944. I was about six months old and daddy would have been 24.

I was a teenager when I took this picture. Since I was the oldest child I did a lot of milking with Daddy – until my oldest brother Dale was old enough to do that job. This is when we became good friends. I didn’t particularly like milking cows, but I liked being with Daddy.

One of my favorite memories during my time of milking with him was racing out of the house to the barn one afternoon. At that time there was a fence around the yard and I reached the gate first – as I hurriedly opened the gate, he jumped over the fence and beat me to the barn. 🙂

My most memorable time of milking was when I was fifteen and my youngest brother Steve was born – during the evening milking. I had to oversee the entire process. I had never milked without him in the barn. He told me I did a good job.

This is one of the last pictures we have of him. He died during the summer of 1997 – seven days after his 77th birthday.

He was a kind and generous father who enjoyed life and treasured his family and friends. He was considered by friends and family as incredibly trustworthy and honest.

He taught me to love God by his example of Godly living.