Happy memories of Dad and I...

My phone call today with Dad was very frustrating.  He rambled on and on about Doctor-Doctor (his favorite Aide) and how much he loves her. Sounded like he had watched TV and no doubt had seen the coverage of Haiti, and that influenced what he tried to tell me.  His conversation made no sense and he kept putting the phone too far from his mouth so I could not hear him.

The best part of the conversation was him telling me how good it was to hear my voice...

I am not going to allow our conversation to bring me down.  Instead, I found an Alzheimer's ribbon and a baby picture of Dad, Mom and I when I was a baby and put it on my blog. Instead, I will share some happy memories of Dad and I.

I was surfing the net today and saw a picture of an adult's bare feet and a child's bare feet on top of the adult's feet.  It made me remember when Dad used to take off his shoes and in his stocking feet, invite me, in my stocking feet, to stand on his feet and then he would dance with me around the room. He had different songs he would sing or hum to go with our dance. This activity erupted high pitch giggles from me as he held my hands and we danced around the living room...

He used to Poka dance with me too.  I can't remember the name of the song, but it was on one of Mom's records.  It was a real toe tapper and he would hold my hands and we would basically side step and skip all around the livingroom.  Dad would be huffing, puffing, laughing, and I would have the high pitched giggles and screams of delight.

As a family, we all watched Cheyene with Clint Walker as Cheyene Bodie.  At the beginning of every episode, it would say..."A wanderer roams the wild west"...and then he would lope in on his horse into the town.  I would imitate Cheyene riding in on his horse.  I could do it with comic perfection and it made my Dad roar with laughter!

Dad loved Westerns, especially anything with John Wayne. For years he had a life size cardboard cut out of him, that Dad kept in various corners of the house.  I think one of my brothers gave it to him...

I also used to sing the theme song to Paladin to entertain Dad. Richard Boone's portrayal was another of his favorites.    I would sing, imitating the singer's voice:

                           "Have gun will travel 

                                 reads the card of a man,

                               A knight without armor,

                    in a savage land.

His fast gun for hire

heads the calling wind,

A soldier of fortune

is the man called Paladin.

Paladin, Paladin,

Where do you roam?

Paladin, Paladin,

Far, far from home..."

These are the memories I will hold on to today...