Today would have been my father’s 81st birthday, but his kidneys conspired not to let him reach his 75th birthday. My dad is remembered with great love and affection by many, many people. Here are 10 of the top things I learned from my dad.

1. The beauty of a life lived faithfully to one’s family.
2. Persistence in continuing to reach for one’s goals, elusive though they may be.
3. How nice it is to be around a man who smells good.
4. What a gift it is to be generous.
5. How much a smile, a sense of humor, and always singing a cheerful song or whistling a happy tune can make junk better.
6. That sometimes buying a new one of something makes more sense than digging through piles to find the old one.
7. The home needs of numerous widows were able to cared for by one person not even related to them. Besides the many women in our church who could count on him to help with things, he did many, many projects for his mother-in-law in the heat of the Oklahoma summers on his vacations.
8. Reverence.
9. What fun Christmas could be.
10. That it was clearly a priority for him to be there for all of our games, plays, performances, and events.

And for those who knew him, we also learned these things too:

1. The Frog, he am a Queer Bird.
2. Dad was a great person to have around whenever something needed to be built or torn down.
3. There was no such thing as a fire that was too big.
4. Pantyhose are not for men.
5. A small coffee in a large cup left plenty of room for cream. (Back then, there were only two sizes.)
6. How to make music on the rim of a glass with your fingertip.
7. The best way to open a jar — by spanking it to break the seal.
8. In almost every case, bigger was better.
9. That he always hoped to kiss a garboon.
10. The joy of using food coloring to literally color food, like green scrambled eggs.

Do you still have your father in your life? What do you remember about him?