Happy Birthday, Dad! #SundaySalon

Happy Sunday! Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at ReaderBuzz. Check out her post and the links to see what other bloggers have been up to in the last week.

This Sunday, August 11, would have been my dad’s 86th birthday.

Joy’s 1st lollipop, 1963, Kenvil, N.J., 16 months

My dad died in 2001, at age 63. My brother and I think he would have made a good old man and are sorry that he didn’t live to attain that.

Obviously, it’s hard to predict how he would have responded to modern politics. He was a Republican, but the old-school kind — all about low taxes, laissez-faire economics, and small government. On the other hand, he is the first person that I heard say that we don’t want a government that is so small that it fits through our bedroom window. In other words, he believed in minding his own business and letting other people mind theirs.

Two children and father at Grand Canyon, 1971

Joy, Dale, and Dad at the Grand Canyon, 1971

My brother and I are both convinced that Dad would have been utterly disgusted by Donald Trump. My dad valued deep thinking and decency and decorum, and he lived those values every day.

We’re a bit less sure about how Dad would have voted in the 2016 election. I like to think that we might have found a way past the conditioning of his era to help him down a path to vote for Hilary Clinton. Maybe he raised two adult children who could make the case that a vote for Clinton was a vote to preserve American political norms.

photo of Joy wearing her first wig with Dad

Joy (wearing a wig, because this was the year of cancer) and Dad. Summer 1985

It doesn’t take a therapist to explain why I became fully engaged with the way that the internet embraced the Dad Energy of Tim Walz this week.

BuzzFeed collected a bunch of the tweets and memes.

Here are some others that I like.

I just know Tim Walz could teach me how to drive stick shift without making me cry once

— Carrie Courogen (@carriecourogen) August 7, 2024

… and, finally, since I’m a big fan of my fellow Missourian Jess Piper, I’m going to share her tweet.

Ope! Tim Walz just wants to sneak past ya real quick to grab the ranch and feed the kids and protect the LGBTQ community and give you a living wage.

LFG.

— Jess Piper (@piper4missouri) August 6, 2024

Comments

Happy Birthday, Dad! #SundaySalon — 9 Comments

mae on August 10, 2024 at 7:29 pm said:

Speculating about how someone would view today’s politics from the perspective of only living so far into our time is really hard. I also can’t imagine how my father would view our era.

I really liked your quotes about the election.

best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com

Reply ↓
Anne@HeadFullofBooks on August 10, 2024 at 8:05 pm said:

My post is also on a similar vein today. I have been feeling joyful and hopeful like I haven’t felt in a LONG time.

Reply ↓
Deb Nance at Readerbuzz on August 11, 2024 at 7:52 am said:

Your post today leads me to speculate how people I greatly respected, but who have passed—my grandfather, my uncle, my neighbor—would view the candidates for the upcoming election. It’s an excellent way to share with others, I think. I also like to think about the children I know, and to speculate how they might look back at these candidates from their perspectives as adults.

How wonderful it is that you had a father who valued deep thinking and decency and decorum and who lived those values every day. His example gives us all something to strive for.

Reply ↓
Tina on August 11, 2024 at 8:03 am said:

What a wonderful post, Joy. Thank you for sharing the stories about your father. I loved the tweets you posted too and am happy Walz is being well received!

Reply ↓
Jinjer on August 11, 2024 at 8:44 am said:

What a nice tribute to your dad for his birthday. He seems to have a kind face, like Tim Walz.

The first video of Tim Walz that popped up on my TikTok after the campaign announced him as Kamala’s running mate was Tim teaching his daughter how to drive or something. Maybe she knew how to drive and he was teaching her how not to be distracted while driving? I forget, but it was cute and they seem to have a great father-daughter relationship. Quite different from the orange guy and his inappropriate comments about his daughter.

Reply ↓
JoAnn @ Gulfside Musing on August 11, 2024 at 4:34 pm said:

I so enjoyed reading this post, Joy… a beautiful tribute to your father.

Reply ↓
Susan on August 12, 2024 at 10:35 am said:

Some classic photos Joy, thx for sharing. So sorry your Dad passed at an early age. He sounds like my Dad … who was a Republican back in the old days … but can’t stomach them now. He’s all about decency, honor, morals, courage, small gov’t, not telling lies, etc. I think he will vote Dems this time for the first time! … and he’s turning 89 on Weds. Glad you have plenty of good memories of your father.

Reply ↓
Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews on August 12, 2024 at 11:24 pm said:

Beautiful post. I often wonder what my father would think of politics today. He always tried to talk politics with me, but it wasn’t really my thing back then. Now I wish he were here to talk to. I think he’d be shocked at what’s been going on for the last few years.

Reply ↓
Jenni Elyse on August 13, 2024 at 4:09 pm said:

Happy birthday to your dad. It’s so hard to live without our parents, though somehow we manage.

My dad passed at in 2020 at the age of 87 and my mom passed away in 2013 at the age of 78. I miss them every day. Sadly, my dad voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 (he passed away at the end of November) even though he thought he was a horrible human being. I tried to make him see reason. :/

Reply ↓