Dude

This is a picture of my dad, Bill Myers, around 1920 or so.  He was born on New Year's Day 1897.  He was a WW I veteran....served a few months in a tank division in South Carolina before he was mustered out.

And he was a dude.  He loved getting dressed up.  I know exactly where this picture was taken...in the side yard of our house in Galva, Illinois where he lived with his mom and dad and little sister Pearl.  There is the grape arbor that was full grown when I was small...and I see a planter there in the background where he grew the most beautiful flowers.  He had a green thumb.  And the garden was his domain.

I wish I had found this picture when I could have razzed him about his stylish outfit.  I know he probably saved his paycheck for many weeks to buy it.  Of course, this was many years before he met my mom....and then married and had three kids to support.

No mustache.  That is the thing I miss in this picture.  I don't know when he decided to grow one, but I always thought he looked like a movie star anyway...very distinguished in his three-piece suits and camel's hair coat.  My dad never left the house without shaving and putting on pants that were pressed, a crisp shirt and tie, and shiny shoes.  Even when he went down to Spuddy's Barber Shop to get his hair cut or run an errand for my mom downtown.  Always dressed to the nines...that was my dad.

When I find a memory like this lurking in the back of my mind, it makes me smile.  I miss him each and every day.   But as the years have gone by, I can see what he gave his children.  We were loved. We were cared for.  We were encouraged.  By this man...who was truly a dude.