...centenarian

today, January 8, 2009, would have been my dad's 100th birthday...
he died on January 2, 1988, just days shy of his 78th...

he grew up in a very different America...

dirt poor, the next to youngest in a very large...
"shanty Irish", "hillbilly" family...
born only months after the family's move...
from the mountains of Tennessee...
to rural, central California...

he graduated from high school at the age of 21...
so determined to finish, that he moved-in with his coach...
and worked at a number of odd jobs to support himself...
in order to be able to finally graduate...

his plans to go to college on an athletic scholarship...
and become a "high school coach" were drastically altered...
by the early & unexpected death of my Mom's father at age 56...

my dad remained on the ranch, it was 1933...
where he had been helping my grandfather...
who must have known his health was failing...
before the massive heart attack that killed him...

he never got to finish his goal...
of being the first "educated man"in his family...
but he allowed my Mom to finish her education...
and helped both my brother & I to earn Master's degrees...

Dad had "demons" of self-loathing & worthlessness...
he fought a losing battle with them his entire life...
but he was a man of honor...
and treated others better than himself...

so today, I remember him on the centennial of his birth...

I love you Dad... and thanks...