My dad, Harold Cooper Papa.  My dad has always been a picture of fun.  He is a people "kind a guy" and will typically have a joke or a laugh to share in any crowd!  He has spent a lot of years as a hunter and a fisherman, with stories a mile long about his adventures and "catches"!  The gigging stories were usually the funniest and most bazaar as they typically ended with someone falling out of a boat and having to dry out on a gravel bar somewhere on a  dark, cold winter night!  

As we were growing up, he loved being outside - on the river or walking in the woods.  I even remember him taking us for walks so my sister and I could pick wild flowers or hunt for mushrooms along whatever country road he might choose to drive.

Dad played a little mandolin that he called his "tater bug" as I wrote about in an earlier post.  When those "boys" got together and started to play music, it was an all night boot-scootin' country affair!  I learned to play the piano trying to keep up with that "Orange Blossom Special" of a bunch!  I looked forward to those weekend jamborees!  

Grocery store trips were always exciting when dad would take us because we could usually talk him into buying just about anything - sweet, quirky or unusual!  It seemed to be a challenge for him to pick up something he was curious about and take it home to try out!  In the days when coconuts were considered an exotic "extra" dad would throw one in the grocery cart and we would spend the evening drilling holes in it, draining the milk and digging out the "meat" - just for fun! Orange slice candy, malted milk balls, and coconut filled chocolate mounds were among some favorite "catches" when we browsed through the newer department stores of the era, though mom, try as she may, might try and talk him out of them!  

I remember one fine day when my dad, my grandpa, and my uncle Lindell decided they would rob a bee tree. All three came back with buckets of honey and fresh honey combs to chew on...but all three also landed major "goose-eggs" around their eyes and mouths after those bees put up a good fight!  It is a memory that will stay in the archives of the family and be pulled out again and again for the sake of chuckles and belly laughs!

Dad's birthday is in a couple of days - March 21.  He is still just as handsome as ever and still reserves plenty of "hot air" for some good laughs and stories - it only takes a little winding to get the tales "revving" into full swing! Give him a tall glass of lemonade, put him on a back porch with an audience, and just about anything is possible!

Happy birthday, Papa!

My dad