This is a small tribute page to my dad. I plan to include some of the little things that I remember about him, like how when I was little he did *not* like for me to tell him that my dolls said, "Hello, Grandpa."

The cutest memory that I have of him is again from when I was little, I did the old "got your nose trick". He played along and said, "Oh no!" I pretended to put the nose back on upside down; he said, "Oh no! I'm in trouble when it rains." I hadn't thought of that, so I promptly put his nose back on the right way. :)

When I was young we always had a garden. My dad would run the tiller and would leave footprints in the freshly turned dirt. I would try to walk in those footprints, but I'd have to jump and still I couldn't quite follow them.

When I was in third grade, I got the chicken pox and couldn't go to school. My dad was helping out by working in his uncle's hardware store. I got to go too. As I recall, I helped my dad put together a wagon.

The summer after I was in sixth grade, our family went to Opryland, which was an amusement park in Nashville, Tennessee. One of the rides was "old-fashioned" cars. That was one of the few rides Dad would go on, and he let me drive. At one point, we paused, and the car behind us bumped into us a little. He turned around, and the boys in that car hastily apologized. Did I mention that my dad was a big guy?

Whenever we were leaving my grandfather's house, Dad would always invite him to "go with us." I remember wondering what Dad would've done if PaPa had said okay.

One day my dad was driving me into town. We were listening to the radio; "Fast Movin' Train" by Restless Heart(?) was playing. My dad happened to casually sing along with a line or two. I was amazed because my dad wasn't the kind of guy that usually did that. (Maybe I was just never around when he did ...)

When I was in high school, my dad surprised me one day with a radio cassette player.

In the early 90's my dad, sister and I took a road trip about forty miles to the local dam. (I forget why; I think we were just saying how we'd never been there.) We usually didn't do things like that, but it was a good time. We were allowed to visit a part of the dam that wasn't on the regular tour.

My dad told the story of how he and five of his relatives were all at his uncle's hardware store. A gentleman came in and said, "Mr. Jones?" One of the guys replied, "Well, which one do you want? There's six of us here."

Sometimes when we were on bridges that went over a freeway, he'd say that we "ran over a trailer truck" when an 18-wheeler happen to be passing underneath us.

Once when a bug splattered across the windshield, he commented, "It took guts to do that."

Once when I was trying - as I often did - to state my "reasons" that I needed an allowance, my dad tossed me a penny and said that was my allowance. (Smarty pants. Must be where I get it.)

Many times whenever my sister and I would talk about some new thing that we wanted, Dad would say, "And how am I supposed to buy that? With my looks?"

He always swore that the mild sauce at Taco Bell was hotter than the one that was actually labelled "hot."

Once Mom, Dad, and I were working in the yard near the barn. Our large yard was mostly overgrown with vines and brush, and one of us (me, I think) mentioned needing a bulldozer to really clear the yard. I may have wondered aloud where we could get one, because I remember Dad replying that my "boyfriend's daddy" had one. Dad was referring to the neighborhood guy that I had a *huge* crush on, but Dad's calling him my boyfriend made me realize that I really liked the sound of it! ;)

Until the last few years of his life, Dad didn't watch much television. So I was surprised one day when he decided to join me for one of my favorite shows, MacGyver. Unfortunately, that particular episode had a less-than-pleasant scene where a scientist was exposed to a bacteria that accelerated aging. Dad found that a bit disturbing, so he hastily left the room.

As mentioned above, for many years, he didn't watch much television. When he finally got one for the den - where he usually sat - it was a bit complicated to tune, and somehow that task fell to me. I'd be sitting in the living room, and I'd hear him call "Technician!" Then I'd trod into the den and say, "You rang?"

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