Mother's Day and Father's Day Should Be Every Day

Honor thy mother and father. Every day. It is important enough that it is a commandment. We get so busy with our lives, we don't tell the people we love the most that we love them the most; fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, friends. Once they are gone, it is too late to tell them. We even need to learn to love and forgive our neighbors and our enemies. What happened on the cross on Good Friday is one of the most amazing and significant events ever to happen on earth. The greatest show of love for every one of us ever. Tell someone you love them.

A Hundred Reasons I Love My Father

1. he called my brother Jimbo but we didn't feel slighted by that; Jimmy was the baby
2. he belonged to Ducks Unlimited, but he never hunted ducks
3. his three year old son died, his wife died, his house burned down, yet he never became bitter, or mean, or blamed God for the tragic events in his life
4. he kept some of Thomas' toys in his dresser all his life, he never talked about it
5. he got me a paper route
6. he made a metal house at work and gave it to me; it was tan
7. he provided us with food and shelter
8. he never hit me
9. he never yelled at me
10. he never criticized me
11. he used to let us climb on him
12. he let us comb his hair
13. he was happy and smiled a lot
14. he took me fishing
15. he took me to the place where he went to school
16. he took me to the church he went to as a child
17. he took me to his father's cemetery
18. he taught me to saw wood
19. he knew answers to all my history questions
20. he was loyal to Chevrolet
21. he was a loyal Democrat at a time when it made sense to be a Democrat
22. he only owned one new car in his life
23. he was kind to my mother
24. he gardened
25. he liked people
26. he put stickers on his car's windows of the states we visited
27. he took us on picnics
28. we visited his brother Guy and they sat for an hour almost saying nothing
29. just being in his presence made me feel good
30. I liked driving with him in the car
31. I learned goodness from his example
32. he read a lot
33. he was never broke
34. he made his money last
35. he let my mother have her family over a lot and he never complained
36. he told the police "Why are you bringing him home when I'm watching Zorro?"
37. he wore suspenders
38. he slept in a bed with my mother every day they were together
39. he called my mother Maggie
40. he let my mother call him T
41. he had a driver's licence in a different name
42. he told us he was born in Texas, which he wasn't
43. he is my father and I'm proud of him
44. he wasn't tall, but that didn't bother him
45. he bought a Sea King outboard motor that I won't part with
46. he had a favorite pair of slippers
47. he saved his money and bought a house to retire in
48. he made his rounds when he was retired, restaurants, my house, Mary's house, Carol's house, the hardware store, the lumber yard
49. he looked cute in his red and black hunter's hat and coat
50. he took us to buy a Christmas trees
51. he took us to Candy Cane Lane
52. he was never jealous
53. he never gossiped
54. he called his mother and talked to her on the phone every week
55. he took me to swim in Thomas' Pond
56. he would stay in a motel that had a pool so I could swim
57. we always were given good toys at Christmas
58. he took me to buy my first car a '57 Pontiac convertible
59. he took me to buy my second car, a '62 Corvair Monza and he taught me to drive a stick shift on the way home
60. he never asked for anything
61. he said you could tell when your socks were dirty because they could stick to the wall
62. he knew how to fix radios
63. he took a lot of pictures of us when we were kids
64. he bought my brother a two wheeled bike and rode on it with him
65. he bought me a wagon to deliver my newspapers
66. he let us play outside after school and all summer
67. he had us move after our house was robbed
68. he wasn't prejudice
69. he didn't hold grudges
70. he let me sleep in his room when I was scared
71. he combed his hair over to make it look like he had more
72. he didn't complain about our crazy relatives
73. he loved my mother's cooking
74. he gave us old coins
75. he was nice to my mother's stepfather Pete
76. he watched football
77. he played baseball at one time
78. he could make things out of wood
79. he liked to bobber fish using red worms
80. he liked fried chicken
81. he was good to his mother
82. his father died before I was born, but I know he loved him
83. he let us go to the movies
84. he tried his best to be a good parent
85. he called me Billy
86. he gave us money for penny candy
87. he didn't have any tattoos
88. he died sitting in his favorite chair waiting for my mother to make him breakfast
89. we were the poorest in our neighborhood, yet we never felt wanting anything
90. he worked hard
91. he talked about hitting us with a board with a nail in it, but he never did
92. he married my mother
93. he loved Tommy and Jill
94. he liked to watch the Ed Sullivan Show
95. he slept on my grandmother's porch in Mississippi
96. the bugs never seemed to bother him
97. he was friendly
98. he wrote letters to my sister Ann
99. he never envied his brothers and sisters who had much more than he ever did
100. he is in heaven now and I am glad I am one of his eight children: Thomas, Martha, Ann, Johnny, Burns, Mary, Billy, and Jimmy
101. he is resting next to his mother and father in Gholson