This month was my Father’s birthday.  He would have been 70 this year. The only reason I realized it on the day itself was because of my phone. You see, apparently on someones birthday my phone displays a little birthday cake in the corner. I woke up, turned on the phone and there was the cake. “Oh neat” I thought, “must be someones birthday.” I didn’t even realize it was his.

I’ve had a lot of time to think about my dad over the last two years. I wanted to write something on the anniversary of his passing but I honestly couldn’t think of anything to say. Now that his birthday has come it has me thinking again.

I’m up in Maine visiting my wife’s family. We come up here every other year because her Aunt can’t travel due to medical reasons. While we were staying here we had the family over to the house we were renting to have dinner. I barbecued. My daughter was asking about the grill and I told her the story of Philmont.

When I was a kid we hiked part of the Rockies at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. During the trip my Dad had a Birthday. We had hiked in some big cans of peaches and borrowed a Dutch Oven from the base camp we were at. All the scouts worked together and made him peach cobbler for his birthday. Two of the scouts wrote him a special poem as well.

I texted my Mom to find out how old my Dad was when that happened. Turns out he was 43. Just two years older then I am right now. When he was my age I was 12. His oldest was 15 or 16 and his youngest was just about the same age as my daughter is now.