Dad's Birthday

Today would be my father's 91st birthday, had he not passed away at the age of 57 on 10 September 1980.  When my mother called 911, the person on the other end was a lady my age, who grew up across the street and five doors down.  She soothed my Mom as best she could and immediately sent out EMTs. God bless Elaine Clevenger Sturm for being on the other end of the phone.  She was a fun childhood companion, and is still a good friend.  As a young man, Dad would have been described as having medium height (5 feet 10 inches) and being of slim build.  He had dark brown hair with red highlights from the sun, a black handle-bar moustache, green eyes, and freckles.  After 1968, he grew a full beard, and most people remember him with an almost totally white beard.  I now admit that I'm the reason he grew that beard - because he had all of his teeth pulled at once, and the US Navy gave him a set of very fake-looking choppers (all the teeth looked square).  I told him that those teeth looked awful one time.  They were wrapped up in a handkerchief and placed in his socks drawer, where they sat until Dad died.  Looking back, I feel that I did Dad an injustice at that time - but, he used his gums, and, he could eat anything except roasted nuts, in a short time.  But his mouth stayed dry, so he was constantly chewing gum - Wrigley's Spearmint was his favorite.
  Dad was born in Hooker, Oklahoma, and was raised in Hooker, and then Troy, Kansas.  He was third of four surviving children, with Elmer and Hazel being older, and Joe being youngest.  His mother, Grandma Grace, was a juvenile diabetic, diagnosed before insulin was discovered.  She came from a long line of farmers and school teachers.  Grandpa E E was a farmer, and his family had been farmers and school teachers for generations, also.  Dad was raised with a highly developed work ethic, a love of reading and knowledge and with a deep appreciation of other peoples' beliefs and cultures.  He did his best to instill those values in Kathy (my only sibling) and me.  He left Kansas at the age of 17 to join the US Navy - he wanted to be a fighter pilot.  But it turned out that Dad had absolutely no depth perception, and was scrubbed out of the program.  Since he loved flying so much, he became a mechanic for planes, and learned the ropes at the Ford Engine Company, before heading out to sea on aircraft carriers.  He studied radar and radar installation for older aircraft.  He worked as head mechanic for the Navy's Blue Angels Flight team for 3 years.  Dad retired from the Navy when I was 5 years old.  He said he never wanted to have to shovel snow again, and, so, we moved to Florida; but us kids spent summers on Chincoteague Island with our Mom's extended family.
  Dad and Mom saved for a wonderful retirement  - he was going to show her the world and his favorite places.  Mom had only been "out of the country" once, when we, the family, spent an afternoon in Matamoros, Mexico in 1960.  Dad was going to show her Puerto Rico, where he hoped to retire; all his ports of call in the Mediterranean while with the Navy, especially in Greece; and the Crown Jewels of England, which, he told Mom, could not compare with the lustrous beauty of her eyes....  Dad was the Assistant Superintendent of Alachua County Roads when he died.  He and Mom didn't get to travel during retirement.  But I took Mom to England for a vacation, and I showed her the Crown Jewels - just for Dad.
  Thank you for everything, Daddy.