A Look Back… Dad this Time

My Dad……. Glenneth Dale McGee born March 18, 1935.  Due to those lovely curls his momma couldn’t cut until he was nearly five years old he was given the nickname ‘Cotton’ which he is still called to this day by his endearing friends. 
This is La Casa, the school he attended from 1st grade through graduation.  Not much of it is left.  Just a few walls that my kiddos just HAVE to have a few senior pictures taken at for memory’s sake.  It is 1 1/2 miles from the farm my Dad has lived and farmed his entire life.
This is the house my Dad grew up in.  It was built after a fire burned the one previously on this site.  It was winter and the family had to tear down the barn to rebuild the house.  I know this is true because I live in this house now, though after four add-ons you would never know it was the same one.  During one remodeling project when we removed the sheet rock we discovered the barn wood walls complete with old cow poop still crusted on one board in the bathroom.  It was barely 1000 sq. feet.  Imagine eight children raised in that amount of space!

This is my Dad during his college days.  He would die if he knew I had this picture.  He is the one in the middle.  I never knew as a child he actually had fun like any other average kid.  I thought he was all work.  Of course raising four kids on a teacher’s salary during the 60’s was not an easy job.  I thought the reason he got home from school an hour and a half late was because he liked driving the school bus route.  I didn’t know we NEEDED the money.  He then sat down his briefcase, dawned his work clothes and farmed til dark.  I just thought he liked doing that too.  I never felt poor.  We were always rich in my eyes.  Thanks to my Dad I now realize all the sacrifices he made for us.
  My Dad was always there for us.  He believed in hard work and made sure we knew what it felt like.  Greg was driving a tractor by age five.  We hauled hay, fed cattle, hoed cotton, cleared land and for a treat we would get to go swim in the POND! later that evening.  I see the value in every minute of his teaching us about hard work.
My Dad was an excellent teacher.  I still hear old stories of his many moments that left a life-long impression in the lives of the students he touched.  He taught Physics and every evening after dark he would come in from farming and set down to get his lesson plan ready for the next day.  Nearly every good night kiss I remember giving him was leaning over a giant Physics book sitting in his lap.
 Dad met mom in college.  He picked the best wife, and mom, in the universe.  She has done the best job of keeping my dad somewhat the spoiled baby of the family of eight that he was.
 
 
  I have to comment on this picture.  We are in Guatemala visiting Chloe and Chi on a six day trip, just he and I.  I had to get him a passport.  He had scarcely been out of Oklahoma, much less out of the country.  If you know anything about Guatemala, it’s a bit dangerous at times and in certain places.  Well my dad LOVED every minute of this trip.  He met sooooooo many Guatemalan people and just visited with them all, never mind they spoke a different language and might possibly be carrying an AK-47.  He thought this was just great.  Only MY dad could find someone to sit down and visit with in a foreign country and not know a word of their language!















My dad, I hope the pictures speak for themselves.  He is the best family man in the world.  He wears overalls now.  He is 75 and retired.  He spends his days on the farm doing what he loves.  I know he spends a lot of time looking back at all the wonderful memories of a life well lived.  I get to hear about these times when we are sitting under a tree or on the front porch.  I wouldn’t trade a minute for the time we get to have together.  My dad shows his love in deeds.  I know there is not one thing on earth he would not do for me.  That is a comfort I hope I pass along to my own children.  Thanks Dad – I love you!