ON the first anniverary of Art passing, the family that lives in south Florida got together for dinner. Norm and Diane and Laura and Mike brought over a wonderful Italian dinner.  A very.bad rain storm with thunder and lightening started. As we sat down to dinner the sun came out.  I told the family to look for a rainbow.  As soon as I said that, the most beautiful, brilliant rainbow apeared.  That rainbow lasted for an hour, never losing its color until our dinner was over.  Never in all my life have I seen a rainbow last that long.  We all knew who sent it.  God created the rainbow, but I like to think Art had a part in it also.  It was very comforting to all of us, and we know it was sent to let us know everything is OK.

My Dad & Mom were both very clever. One of the best ideas I thought they had ever come up with was getting married on his birthday. Talk about a date that you simply never forget...and if he did, he could simply say "Hey honey, it's my birthday." Pure Genius!

As we lived our lives together it became easy for us to plan some kind of event on that day or get our parents a special present to celebrate both. Often we would have a dinner or party and all the children would send flowers or call. Usually Art would get his favorite meal...a steak dinner with homemade cheesecake for dessert. Yummy!

One day, Danny had told us about a new Oiless turkey fryer that he had gotten. Well, my father told me that he wanted one and sent me on a mission to aquire it. The first turkey we cooked in it happened to be awesome and it quickly became a family favorite thing to do. We would sit outside and listen to music while the turkey cooked away. Us guys would smoke cigars and have a drink or two. It was a great time that I will always remember. I also will never forget how happy my father was each time we did this. The reason I mention this is because on this Birthday/Anniversary we are going to fry a turkey...it will be in rememberance of those times. And as I found out today....it just so happens that on this day 62 years ago, my mother & father had turkey for their wedding dinner.

As an annual passholder at Disney World, I'm there... a LOT. I've only gone one time since grandpa passed away, and realized something while I was there that I forgot about.

Before the parades at Disney, they have one or two high school or college marching bands play, followed by the grand marshall, and then the floats. My friends and I found a great spot for the parade and sat down, and soon enough, the marching bands came down the street through Frontierland. As soon as I heard the music, I started to cry. I didn't just get teary-eyed, I almost started sobbing. At first, I couldn't figure out why. The songs were happy songs (If I recall correctly, one of the songs was "Happy" by Pharrell Williams). I had no reason to cry... and then it hit me.

When my sister and I were little, we spent MANY parade-meriting holidays sitting on Grandpa's lap, in his big chair, watching the parades. I remember watching the Rose Parade with him more than once, and he told us all about how the floats are made and named off the different kinds of flowers.

I guess the Disney parade just stirred up my memory and brought it to the surface, but I don't mind. It's wonderful to remember the good times.