long may she wave

Daddy is one of those hard to buy for guys who really doesn't really want anything because he can't remember what's up outside of his rigid schedule of sleep,eat,go to church and to the doctor and put a flower by mama's table at command central. I asked him a few days ago what he'd like for father's day/july birthday and he said he needed a new American flag to fly on his pole out in the yard. Per his ritual, the stars and stripes are always lit up at night. His stint with the USAF gave him a real deep conviction about community pride. A supply man, he was stationed in the Azores first, and then in Shreveport where he and mama were newlyweds. I was conceived in Martin after he returned to college and the rest is history. It took me many years and multiple teary conversations with my mother to understand that he came from a family where everybody was kinda sorta stuck together like glue because it was the great depression and they were sharecroppers. He fell out of a barn loft as a young teenager and had to have his butt wiped by sisters while he recovered. Two of the three are still alive and kickin'.We had a nice breakfast today at our current spot and stopped by Kroger to get essentials like bananas and cereal. Oh, and ice cream and cookies for mom. They have doughnuts at the breakfast place too, and the raised chocolate glazed kind was sold out so he settled for cake and ate both of them before we got halfway home. After we got back to the red log cabin I helped him run that Old Glory up the pole to replace the tattered one. I tell him often that I love him, and there's never any sort of reply other than a left handed shoulder church hug. I figure he just never knew how to deal with girls.I have never seen my daddy cry much but one of those times was when my teenage self snuck out to meet an older boy and mama had him out looking for me. He had been running the roads for hours when he returned to find me on the couch looking very sheepish about the whole thing. That's when the tears started to roll. I was a believer after that night, I'm just saying.

Happy Father's Day to you and yours. I hope that everybody got a call from the fruit of their loins on this special sunday. All it takes is a phone and the faith to say "i love you".