Today is the one year anniversary of my dad's passing. I miss him and the sound of his voice when he would call me just to shoot the breeze. I slept in the room where he slept the last few months of his life and spent some time going through his yearbooks from college and from Northwest Mississippi Community College (where he finished high school after the war). According to the time frame for finishing school in 12 years, Dad should have finished in the spring of 1944. I don't know the reason but he was held back, but I believe it had to do with sickness as a young child.
Due to this fact, he found himself in the first semester of his junior year when he turned 18 and so he finished that semester and reported to Great Lake Naval Training Center for boot camp at the end of 1944. When the war was over and he returned home he sought to re-enroll at CHS. The principal at the time informed him that he would have to repeat the first semester of his junior year which he completed before going overseas. Dad was now 20 years old and not wanting to go back to school with 16 year olds, he opted for a program at Northwest that would allow him to finish his high school requirements in a year so that he could go on to college. He always spoke highly of Northwest and for this opportunity that they afforded him. In looking over his belongings, I found pictures from the 50 year reunion that he attended in 1997.
I think of him at least once a day and miss him, his jokes and his unique perspective on life.
I miss you, Pop! Things aren't the same without you.
