70 Memories

From Willard Travell Weeks
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HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY DAD!

70 MEMORIES
Vivid, Happy, or Otherwise

1. Skating on the frozen swamp in Hadley and skating by moonlight at the farm.
2. Fishing (unsuccessfully) in Maine with Ned and the black flies.
3. Tobogganing at Amherst College.
4. Playing jungle gym on you.
5. SuperDan and SuperGin stories.
6. Your dance of joy when I shot a pheasant.
7. Hunting squirrels on Mt. Warner and making Brunswick stew.
8. The time you smashed your thumb with a hammer finishing the woodshed roof at Funland, and then got a flat tire on the way home.
9. Tom McBride and I helping you to build the Sugarhouse.
10. You shooting the moon when playing Hearts at Funland.
11. The time we lit your fart into a large blue flame.
12. Walking up Albee brook at night, shining a flashlight at all the fish.
13. The time we went out in a blizzard to go skiing and the car slid into and across a major intersection, but that wasn't enough to stop you.
14. The time Randy and I pushed the Scout out to the main road and down the hill in a vain attempt to jump-start it, only to find it had no gas!
15. Playing chess with you, and losing.
16. Playing chess with you, and winning.
17. Being next to you in church when you were singing (off-key).
18. Fly-tying with you.
19. How proud you were when I caught the large pike at Saranac Lake in New York on a fly we tied.
20. Playing charades with you.
21. Sneaking down the stairs at night just in time to have ice cream with you.
22. Hunting breakfasts you'd make with wonderful hash browns.
23. Canoeing in the pond on top of the mountain.
24. Going across the Bay of Fundy on a large ferry and back, just to watch birds.
25. Seeing a black-footed albatross off the coast of Oregon from a deep sea fishing boat plunging in the waves.
26. Playing "Ghost" in the car.
27. Looking for money that fell out of your pants pockets.
28. Crepe suzettes with your homemade jam.
29. Playing find the red donut.
30. Playing find your lost checkbook.
31. Tap-tap torture.
32. Fishing for sunglasses in an outhouse.
33. Learning about trees and animal footprints.
34. Watching you train your dogs.
35. Watching you lie on your back with dog food on your chest in order to catch your dogs.
36. Shooting the gun to get your dogs to come home.
37. Bouncing on your knee as you sang "Coming around the mountain."
38. Four-wheeling in your Volkswagen Rabbit.
39. Cooking on the rock in the ravine at Sheffield.
40. Lollipops from your medical office.
41. The sound of you running a bath while I was trying to sleep.
42. Target practice in the basement.
43. The smell of the fresh cut wood as you built the cabin.
44. The beautiful furniture you made me.
45. Riding on your shoulders where I could reach the sky.
46. Learning to ski at Berkshire East.
47. Skiing at Jay Peak and staying at Eagle Lodge.
48. Picking black berries behind Amherst Medical Associates.
49. Removing the stitches from my lip while I slept.
50. Piercing my ears for me.
51. Putting crayfish in my fish tank.
52. Drilling a hole through the turtle's shell so we could take it for walks.
53. The sound of you practicing turkey calls with your hunting buddies in the basement.
54. Setting off your ice fishing tip-ups while you weren't looking.
55. Homemade maple syrup over snow.
56. After surgery, saving a piece of your shoulder in a jar for us to see.
57. Hitting your head on the canoe, again and again and again.
58. Canoes flying off the car while you were driving.
59. Crazy man in a limousine trying to run us off the road while you were driving.
60. Tanya, Tanya and Tanya.
61. Holding my hands to lift me over the waves breaking on the beach at Cape Cod.
62. Calling you from the home phone to the business phone and pretending to be sick patients and giggling while we said the word "diarrhea."
63. Sailing with Wilma and Ken Cashin.
64. Shooting the porcupines that ate the cabin.
65. Beaver sticks.
66. Camping on the tent platform.
67. Incredible Thanksgiving dinners, with ALL the food harvested by you.
68. Holding hands around the dinner table.
69. The way you wrinkle your nose.
70. And, most importantly, two-ply toilet paper!

We cherish these memories.

Love, Dan and Ginny
October 16, 1999