Today is the 125th anniversary of his birth.

Here my Granddaddy is with me on the wonderful front porch he built himself. He is in his Sunday suit and looking very handsome with that great shock of white hair.  The stuffed animal sitting in front of me is a crocheted mother kangaroo with a baby joey that my daddy sent from Australia where he was deployed.  I seem to be singing, probably “Waltzing Matilda.”

And here he is many years later next to that same front porch showing K and E a bird nest in the wisteria.

I remember so many things about him.  He always polished his Sunday shoes on Saturday nights and always dressed up for church on Sunday mornings.  Otherwise, after he stopped wearing his postman’s uniform, he always wore long-sleeved khaki shirts and khaki pants during the week.  I remember one Father’s Day, Mother bought him a short-sleeved dress shirt and he commented that this was the first short-sleeved shirt he’d ever had.  I wonder if he ever wore it.