My Father's Birthday

Today is the 100th anniversary of my father's birth. I had wanted to have a party, but a neighbor out at the lake who just turned 95 had a party on Sunday and it seemed anti-climactic.

My father died in 1979, a few months after the birth of my son. He held him in his arms as he knew he was dying and said "The joys of heaven."

I've been wondering what this area was like 100 years ago. What did he come into? He was born in Auburn which was a much different thriving metropolis then. His parents were considered wealthy and had a cottage on Owasco Lake where he spent the summers.

I looked up the year in Wikipedia, expecting to see some kind of discussion to enlighten me. Instead I found an extraordinary list of people who were born that year: Ray Milland (who always reminded me of my father), John Wayne (who died in '79 also), Barbara Stanwyck, Laurence Olivier, Daphne Du Maurier, Frida Kahlo, Gene Autry, Robert Young, Burgess Meredith, Rachel Carson, Buster Crabbe, Pinky Lee, Fay Wray and my favorite, Kate Hepburn, who outlived them all.

So today I honor my father and thank him heartily for giving me the lake. And if you read this from up there, yes, Dada, we do know that you were born in 1907 not 1909 as you told my mother when you courted her. She kept your secret.