Daddy

Daddy loved being a Daddy.  He loved kids, all six of us and all of our friends and cousins, and he wanted grandchildren...lots and lots of grandchildren.  He only got to know a few of them before he died, barely making it into his  50,s. He died 30 years ago today. Mark and I are both a lot older than he ever got to be.

 He had jet black hair and the blue blue eyes with those laugh lines around his eyes that I loved to see when he smiled.  He never got the chance to grey except for  a little around the sideburns.

He was fun and spontaneous.  We never knew what he was going to do.  He was a very involved Daddy in a generation when  that was unusual. He was booster club  president and never missed a game. He played and was coached soft ball for city teams.  I was his bat girl before I was old enough to play and his baby girl until the day he died.  He called Barb and I doodle and doodle bug.  As long as he was alive, I always felt beautiful because he told me that I was, often,  even when I was  barefoot and pregnant.

He played games with us in the front yard..that does not look  nearly as big now as it did back then.  He took us fishing and swimming at the sand bar below blue springs. He also discovered Dekle beach, where we spent every summer.

We did not have A/C in our Florida home.  He would come into our room at night and kill the mosquitoes that slipped through the screen of our open windows. Some times, he would ask all of us kids if we wanted to go for a ride in the station wagon with A/C to cool off.  Somehow, he always had buckets in there so that we could stop and pick black berries.  Of course, more went into the mouths than the buckets.  Yard cleaning day was always a family project with as much fun as work.

We lived in the same house for most of my school years.  It was right next to the school which was very convenient for a large family of kids. Our home was the place to go after school and all were welcomed.  This house had 15 foot ceilings.  The last year that I lived at home Daddy got us a 15 foot tree because he knew that I loved real big Christmas trees. He nailed it to the floor and tied it with fishing line to the windows.  Daddy loved Christmas and could be found under the tree messing with the presents.  He would love the chaos of Christmas at the Waller home now  with children  all over the place.

Daddy was the one that got me my first job, my first car and the first one to tell me that I was in love with Mark.... which I denied because I was so young.  Mama spoiled him rotten and taught me all that I know about marriage.  Daddy taught all of us to love life and to enjoy every day that we are blessed with.  A lesson that Mark and I try to adhere to every day...................Love you Daddy