Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is my father's 60th birthday!

Birthdays are always a big deal in my family: since Dad's and mine are thirty years minus two days apart, we've always had joint celebrations (7 & 37, etc). The fun lasts the entire month of February, and Mom's is all July long. This year is 30 & 60, and I'm more grateful than ever to share it with him.

To celebrate this day and how many people my Dad has touched, comforted or just plain cracked up, I'd like to extend this challenge to you: Leave a comment here today with a fond or funny memory you have of Timbo. I love hearing stories about him, no matter how ridiculous. I'll read them to him when I talk to him later tonight.

There are so many for me, from singing and dancing to Sam Cooke in the living room to pretending to ignore my aunt Violet's wheezing in her later years. But for today, here's mine:

Summer in Arkansas is one of the grossest things imaginable; the humidity is approximately a thousand percent. The moment you walk outside you feel as if a warm wet blanket is thrown at your face. The great thing about all this moisture is that your yard grows lush and green, but you have to mow it constantly. All that heat and moisture, combined with the rural land our house is built on, equals snakes. Lots of them. That's the other reason you need to mow frequently- don't give them any more places to hide.

It's summer. I'm eight years old, maybe nine. Dad had been mowing for an hour and was loopy from heat exhaustion. Mom went out to relieve him and he sat down with a glass of sweet tea. Not a minute and a half later, Mom came running in the house, screaming and flailing her arms Muppet-style above her head. She had seen a garden snake in the mower's path and flipped. This was the conversation:

Mom: "TIIIIIIIIIMMMMMM! It's a SNAAAAAAAAKE!"
Dad: "Shiminey, Gloria, calm down. What did it look like?"
Mom: "Ii-i-it was green, and-"
Dad:"--you came screaming in her for a dang garden snake? You skeered me so much I thought it was a copperhead."
Mom: "I don't care, Tim, it's still a snake!"
Dad: "No, it's not, it's nothing. Just get back out there and run over it."
Mom: "OOOOHHHHHHHHH MAAAAAAAAAH GOOOOOOOD No! I can't!"
Dad: "Why the heck not?"
Mom: "Well, won't it jump up and try to bite me?"
Dad: "No, Gloria, he'll stand up and fight like a man. Now go."