May 17th, 1929

I heard him laugh just last week.

Catfish somehow failed to see a 6 foot umbrella in the yard, and destroyed both the umbrella and the hours old lawn mower. I heard him laugh, and I could see him tilt his head back just a bit, and look toward the sky as he chuckled. It was a 'I've been there, done that and bought the t-shirt' laugh. I haven't heard him laugh all that much in the last ten years, but he laughed at that. In his pale blue eyes, you could see memories of my many misadventures as a child..., and in the echo of the chuckles, you could tell he was enjoying this.

I remember, once I told him about something absurd that Catfish had done, he laughed a little and looked at me with smiling eyes, and said "Has he burned the house down yet?".

I had to answer 'No, sir. No, he hasn't.'

"Well, I'm one up on you then, aren't I?", he replied And he threw his head back just a little, and laughed. I laughed, too.

When he laughed, he laughed with his whole body. Sometimes, it was just his eyes. Sometimes you could tell when he was laughing just by the way he was standing, even when he wasn't making a sound, and sometimes, it was just that look in his eyes.

As my daughters grow older, and accomplish greater and greater things, I hear from him at graduations. He doesn't laugh at graduations, but I still know he'
s there. He smiles really big. He had two gold teeth way back in his mouth, and when each of girls graduated from college, I'll bet you could see both of them.

As Catfish experiences the teenage years, I suspect I'll hear from him more often. I know he's looking forward to this. I remember that he didn't laugh much when I sank a car, or when I skipped school and went hunting or fishing, but he will when Catfish does. I expect that I'll hear him on the sidelines at soccer matches, and in the crowd at school concerts. I'll hear him at the treehouse, and out by in the pool. He's always with us at barbeques.

Jennifer will be 24 years old on Monday, and he would have been 81.

RIP, Daddydoc.