I deleted the entire thing (or so I thought) a year ago or so when one of our Small Town Fiend's (the "Mrs. Olson" to our little community, for sure) used the blog to try and wreak some mischief involving the kids.
The boy-wonder was sad - told me he enjoyed reading the things I wrote and encouraged me to take up the quill again.
So - for his birthday - the blog is reborn and archived and I even saved the 20 or so drafts I was working on when I deleted the entire thing a couple of years ago after "Harriet" started her mischief. I thought I would chronicle in no particular order, many of my favorite memories walking along with him on his journey to adulthood.
I preface this chronicle with a quote from my mother that she shared with me when I was at an important moment in my life. It has been magnetic north on my emotional compass ever since, particularly since that warm first full night of summer years ago when he was born, and I was born as a Small Town Dad. I should also add that many of these little pellets from the intellectual Pez dispenser that is my memory will only make sense to the birthday boy. Whattya gonna do? It's his birthday :-)
The quote goes like this:
Its lesson so simple - get the hell off the sidelines, dive in, do your best, choose a worthy cause and be prepared, as reward for that risk-taking and adventure, to fail while daring greatly.
"Spend yourself."
When you boil it all down to its essence, that's what we're doing here - spending ourselves. Doing so wisely, with fun and adventure, character and a wholesome purpose - that pretty much sums up the mission statement of any decent kid/parent combination I've ever known.
So. my beautiful son - we dared greatly along the way to your birthday. Here are many of my favorite recollections of those adventures. I started out with the goal of writing just a handful - one per year. You can see how that worked out. There are about 100,000 more that didn't make the list because I couldn't fit them all in. I love you - happy birthday :-)
Some of my favorite memories with the boy-wonder for his birthday:
1. The Very Scary House we passed at the stroke of midnight in the rough hills of Pennsylvania on the way to Gettysburg (2018). I still laugh about it.
2. The very slippery floors in the master bedroom sometime around 2008 (“This is what you do?! THIS IS WHAT YOU DO?! YOU LAUGH WHEN SOMEONE FALLS DOWN?!”)
3. My 46thBirthday – Sleepy Hollow State Park (Subject of Small Town Dad “It came without packages, boxes or bags” blog post). http://small-towndad.blogspot.com/2010/10/it-came-without-packages-boxes-or-bags.html
4. Your journey to Eagle Scout – from the moment you told me you were going to be an Eagle Scout until the moment you did it.
5. SCUBA Diving – getting lost underwater, being your dive buddy, working out for a year so I could go, the trip to Gilboa and our last dive there, the underwater handstand.
6. The many times we played catch – in the street or at a campout.
7. Pheasant Hunting with the boy scouts.
8. Your CMU Marching Band Audition
9. Watching you play in your play room when we lived in Lansing – bob the builder toys, galactic heroes, Thomas the tank engine. All your favorites.
10. Watching your antics as Drum Major - the parking lot music from the first band day at CMU is one of my all time favorites.
11. The speech you gave at Aunt Julie’s wedding
12. The speech you gave at Grandma Armistead’s funeral.
13. The picture of you and Grandma Armistead and Grandpa Armistead.
14. You playing on the rocks at Devil’s Den.
15. The finish of your last cross-country race at Ithaca.
16. The night I dropped you off at Blue Lake after the benefit you played in for the Band Boosters.
17. Snuggling you when I came home from work when you were a baby.
18. Watching you help the man on Mackinac Island your first year on the honor guard.
19. Your speech to the boys in Troop 111 as Senior Patrol Leader after the trailer was stolen “Here’s what we’re NOT gonna do…..”
20. When I told you that you could quit football in the 4th grade and you said “here’s the thing, Dad. This is a small town and I’m going to be seeing these guys for a long time until I graduate. I’m not going to let any of them ever call me a quitter…”
21. Learning you got accepted into Blue Lake and later Blue Lake International.
22. Seeing you at the Grand Canyon after missing you so much.
23. Watching you earn your snorkeling and SCUBA award at SeaBase.
24. Listening to you teach yourself how to play the guitar.
25. Watching you and the boys from Troop 67 play instruments at the Friendship Camporee in Canada.
26. “Knock Knock….” “Who’s there?” ……silence……silence…..silence... “…not George Jones….” Entire carload of boy scouts erupts in laughter.
27. Playing Lego Star Wars with you.
28. Touring Scranton, Pennsylvania on our quest for The Office.
29. The 20-mile hike with the scouts (the second one) when I told you that you could go home with the older boys and you reminded me “Dad, there’s a scout out on this road. I’ll just stay here with you, Noah and Mr. Cuthrell and we’ll all finish this walk together…”
30. The picture of you standing on top of the Continental Divide
31. You playing catcher in the fourth grade and flashing signs to the other team’s coach during coach pitch baseball.
32. The time I almost killed you at the water park - you were very forgiving AND grateful for the rescue.
33. When I almost killed you in the hot tub at Pokagon - again, forgiving AND ever so grateful to be retrieved from the depths of that murky hot-tub.
34. When I threw you up into a ceiling fan at grandma’s condo in gulf shores and you looked at me like "dude, seriously?” This time, not so grateful - more incredulous like "how in THE hell did you not see that coming?"
35. Christmas mornings
36. All of your track adventures
37. All of your band adventures
38. All of your scouting adventures
39. Every day I wake up and get to be your dad……
Thanks for dropping by the blog today. I hope it won't be four years before I take up the quill again. Wherever you are today, I hope you are marking the landmarks of your life recalling blessings in abundance, the tender mercies of service and courage to those in need and who might be counting on you, and magic. Most of all, I hope you are the recipient of magical times the beauty of which is unimaginable to you.
Dennis
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