Taking time with the family and storing away the memories

     It was a hot July 4 afternoon and Debbie and I were rolling along the Farmhand Road south of Grinnell on our way to the parade.
      I was noticing how tall the corn was getting and somehow it made me think about my dad.
     “If my folks lived in Iowa, my dad would enjoy watching the corn and crops grow,” I commented to Debbie.
      She agreed.
     He’d like to drive the countryside and look at the crops, the farms, the cattle and soak in God’s beautiful creation called Iowa. I’m sure he would want to stop and visit with the farmers and maybe ride in the combine during harvest, or watch as they planted the soil in the spring months. He would enjoy every minute of it, too.
      It is hard to believe that it was 12 years ago that dad died on July 10, 2010. I was there and watched as Jesus slipped in the in the room and took him to Heaven.
     As for my mom, it will be 13 years since she passed on Sept. 27, 2009. Just more than nine months between the two.
        My dad knew no strangers. Everyone was a friend waiting to be met.
       It didn’t matter if we were at a fishing hole, eating at a restaurant or stopped at a store, my dad would strike up a conversation with anyone who had an ear to listen.
      He had the uncanny ability to find someone with a connection to his upbringing in the Verdigris River bottoms east of Tulsa or the old Oak Grove School, where he attended through the eighth grade and spent part of his boyhood days.
       He loved going back to the home place and visiting with the good folks he grew up around. I’d drive and he’d tell me where to go.
       Every place we stopped, I always found a comfy chair while dad visited. It never took long and I was fast asleep. Dad would wake me up and off to the next family we’d go.
       I remember the story he told me about the time the river got out of its banks and knocked the corn down. They had about 40 acres of corn near the river.
       The river went down and came back up a second time.
       “It only knocked the stalks down, not the corn,” he told me.
       He and his brother, Charley, picked that farm by hand and sold the corn, making enough money that my grandfather bought a used Allis Chalmers tractor and a plow. I think I have the receipt for that tractor in some of the things I inherited from my dad.
      I also have a set of harnesses that his dad used on a team of horses during the WPA days helping build roads in Oklahoma. 
    We also took several trips together including visiting the Chalk Pyramids in western Kansas, the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore and a movie set in southeastern Utah.
       I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the many family vacations we took through the 1970s to places such as San Diego, Calif., Nashville, Niagara Falls and may trips to see family on my mom’s side in Southeast Missouri and the fishing trips to Greenleaf Lake in southeast Oklahoma.
       Life gets busy for all of us. There is always going to be something vying for your time and attention. There never seems to be enough money or time to get it all done.
      I encourage you to take time every now and then to do something fun with your family. It’ll pay bigger dividends than an hour or two of overtime or another meeting or deadline or whatever else comes along in life.
       And it’s a great way to make some memories to store away in your heart.
      Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.