Happy Father's Day, Pop!

I have the good fortune of being the oldest of Pop and Doe's four kids. My beloved mother, Doe, whom I affectionately called Little Napolean or the Toy Cannon, has been with God for six plus years now. I still miss her dearly, as we all do. Her mate for life, my Dad, known to us all now as Pop, is very much alive. He inspires everyone he meets by his Godliness; his kindness; his loyalty; his love for his family; his love for engineering, the military, history, and Ole Miss; his love for "making things happen"; and, his undying love for his, our, Doe. He talks to her everyday and all day, as she talks to him, probably directly for all we know. He hears her and takes comfort in the fact that they will, one day, be able to close the celestial day, sitting in adjoining chairs and just talking, about their kids and their family.



Pop is unique. That's why we all love him so much. Imagine a large bird cage at a zoo. Off to one side there is an un-presupposing small bird, quite social but standing alone. Keep your eye on that bird. And then, suddenly, the bird hopped. It was a humble hop, all things considered, but a distinctly purposeful one. And, then nothing. Another longish wait. And then: another hop. And that was it. That’s all it did: Hop, after long intervals and for no apparent reason.

If you didn’t have it pointed out to you, you might never have noticed the bird. He didn’t look particularly special. He didn’t have showy feathers or huge wings, like many of the other birds in the cage. But he had this hop. And he hopped as he saw fit, on his own schedule, to his own inner clock and, while he surely noticed the other birds, he was content to be unlike them. He was, simply, the Pop bird. There was no explaining him. Either you got him, or you didn’t. And if you got him, you loved him.

And Doe got him.

Happy Father's Day, Pop! May you have many more. Keep walking to Mass every day, showing us all how it's done. Definately a man's man. And tell Mom hello!

[My family is a large Catholic family. We believe in communicating with our beloveds in heaven. My Mom was the oldest of nine kids, seven girls and two boys: my mother Jo, Aunt Susie, Aunt Mug, Aunt Di, Aunt (Sister) Julie, Aunt Bootsie, Uncle Al, Aunt Trish and Uncle Jodie. Mom's Mom and Dad, Mimi and Poppy, were very special, indeed! To give you an idea where I fit in, I'm eleven years younger than Uncle Jodie. Aunt Susie, married to Uncle Don, Colonel, USA (Retired), tells me often that there is this bee who follows her around the garden, and has for years. Aunt Susie knows that Doe is there, watching over her, waiting for her to join her in heaven. That's the Catholic family we are.]



Now, all who know Pop know that he deeply loves Ole Miss. Here's a picture of Pop at the Grove before (or after) an Ole Miss Homecoming win. Pop asks me often when I'm going to get a house in Oxford, so that he can base from there to make it over to the Grove. With Mom gone now, he loves Ole Miss even more.



Here's Dad and my brother Davey at Red and Blue Weekend at Ole Miss, i.e., the Grove Bowl, back in April. Davey and Beth, his beautiful wife, are proud parents of three future lovelies at Ole Miss: Maggie (my beloved Godchild and track phenom), Shannon (an Ole Miss cheerleader for sure), and Caroline (whose love for animals is unmatched). Happy Father's Day Dave!



Here's another picture of Pop in the Grove, with his lifelong friends, Harry and C.J., Ole Miss engineers all.

On this Father's Day, I want to show a few pics of my Annie, Trip and Em.




Here are pictures of Annie, who has put up with me for nearly 25 years and who is OUR rock, and my man Trip, the next Speilberg, holding Ben, youngest child of Andy (and Lorie), Annie's youngest brother. Trip followed his old man to Ole Miss and helped reinvigorate my fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, of which I'm most proud.




Here are pictures of Emily, my own Ole Miss coed and soon to be the world's greatest teacher, also with Ben. Emily, definately the little lady who could!




Above, the greatest gifts to ME on this Father's Day!

UPDATE: One thing Pop also did with us was play pitch and catch with the football. An article about Eli and Archie Manning typifies the father-son game of pitch and catch we used to have with Pop:

Creating normalcy amid an environment that encouraged anything but was the aspiration of Archie Manning and his wife, Olivia, for their three sons growing up in New Orleans.

"I was the quarterback for the Saints when they were the only team in town," recalled Manning. "So it was a pretty high-profile position in the city. But we wanted our children to have a normal childhood, and we worked at it. Maybe it wasn't 100 percent possible, but for the most part we gave them a typical childhood and adolescence."

Eli Manning, youngest of the three sons, agrees. His father may have been an icon around town, but in their neighborhood he was just another dad, one who happened to be very good at throwing the football for a game Eli and his buddies called "Amazing Catches."

"We would run and lay out and try to catch the football as we were diving into the swimming pool," recalled the Giants' second-year quarterback. "My dad would throw the ball so we had to make 'amazing catches.' Our house was the house to be at on Saturdays; all my friends would come over and we'd play sports. We had the pool, a basketball court and a yard to play ball in.

"My dad would be around a lot, but he was just my dad to my friends. He never tried to be anything else."

No question playing sports was a huge part of a household that would produce two starting NFL quarterbacks. But one thing Eli remembers vividly is that his father never pushed him, older brother Peyton or oldest brother Cooper into sports in general, football in particular.

"He never forced anything on us. A lot of fathers may force their kids into athletics, and as a result the kids get burned out at an early age," Eli recalled. "I'm sure he is glad Peyton and I did get into football, but he would have been just as happy if we had taken piano lessons."

"I'll be first to admit I was a little scared about the father-son sports thing," Archie conceded. "I think if you force-feed your kids, you're asking for problems. And that's not only in sports. I think if you're an attorney and you try to force your child to become an attorney, you're asking for trouble.

"I was glad they got interested in sports, but I really wanted them to be as well-rounded as they could be."

Despite the best of efforts to keep things normal around the homestead, there were the times when it was impossible. For instance, when the boys went on a "road trip" to play a game outside their neighborhood, dad would tag along and become the focus of attention.

"I saw the way he handled the spotlight," said Eli, who was 4 when his dad retired from the NFL. "He would take me to Saints games after he had retired. Afterward he'd get mobbed by autograph seekers and people wanting to meet him. And he would sign every autograph, and be kind to everybody.

"That's the biggest thing I've tried to take with me. Be kind to everyone. Treat everyone nicely. That's the way my dad always is."

"I think I got that from my dad," said Archie. "I remember him driving me to Ole Miss for my freshman year. We were having one of those man-to-man's in the car. I was asking him what direction I should go, what I should major in.

"He said I had a couple of years to figure that out. He told me to work hard at schoolwork and at football. But more than anything else, just be a nice guy."

Which has become as much of the Manning legacy as throwing a football.