Mississippi Brother Garry along with his two granddaughters, Madeline and Abby June Bug. It was their present to their grandpa for Father's Day

June 21, 2020 - Sunday morning

60 degrees/drizzle/calm winds

Pentoga Road

Dear Dad,

Just a note to wish you a happy Father's Day. I know Mom is making this a special day for you, no doubt baking your favorite Lazy Daisy cake and I'd bet good money (as you love to say) that you are basting pieces of chicken with liberal amounts of butter as they slowly cook over charcoal in the old Weber grill.

This has been a big week and Sargie has been scrambling to make sure it's been a special one. Wednesday was our anniversary. We celebrated by going down to Green Bay, mostly shopping, but more importantly, enjoying each other's company by talking, laughing, and yes, in true Pennington fashion, singing at the top of our voices as we drove down the road.

You'd have laughed so hard, Dad. Sargie was in a crazy mood and dancing and doing a great imitation of a rocker during a fast song. With her hair flying everywhere and her head going back and forth, I laughed so hard that tears were running down my cheeks. 

Oh, you'd love Sargie, Dad. I wish you had a chance to meet her. Oh well, you will someday. I've told her story after story about you and about the special times we had. She said she'd love to hear us play music together, you on the ukulele, me on the five string banjo. I know when we're together again, we'll pick right up where we left off so many years ago, "making music" as you used to call it.

Those father/son times were the whole reason I went on to become a band director and music teacher. You instilled a love of music that I felt compelled to pass on. 

Let's see, Sargie and I went fishing the other night. I call Sargie the Crappie Queen because she has a real love of crappie fishing. We had just left the boat landing when she caught her first one of the season, a nice crappie at that! 

Remember, Dad, over fifty years ago, when you and I spent an entire evening catching crappies on fly rods using black poppers? Holy cow, didn't we just clean up? 

I miss our fishing excursions, where I'd row so you could cast for bass. It was my favorite part of our times together, putting you "on fish." I still do the same when my friend, Jambo, and I go. I love being his guide and putting him on fish. Of course, as payment, the poor guy has to endure listening to all my stories of our special fishing times together. He's heard all the "Dad fishing stories", eighty or a hundred times, but he humors me and pretends as though he's never heard them before.

Hey, Dad, we have a new granddaughter on Sargie's side of the family. Makenna was born prematurely to Sargie's son, Shea and Nicki, but she's doing good now and there's even talk that she might get to come home in the next couple of weeks.

Makenna brings our grandbaby count up to eleven. We have enough to field a baseball team with a couple in the dugout.

Speaking of grandbaby, Grady's spent time with us this summer. Poor kid. A few days after he was born, I gave him a nickname that's stuck, Hambone. The boy had thighs that would make any Easter ham crazy with envy. 

Hambone tags around with me everywhere I go and we have a lot of fun. I'm trying to teach him everything I know, Dad, just like you and Grandpa Pennington did with me. I'm not trying to teach him book learning, he'll get that in school. I just hope to impart some common sense and practical everyday skills into the boy.

The best thing of having a grandson close by, Dad, is that I can try to do those things with Hambone that I wasn't so stellar at with my own sons. As you well know, you can't redo the past, but you can influence and teach the future.

Hambone and Toby the Dog at the Milligan Summerfest on Saturday afternoon.

Grady's a smart and very loving boy and his brain is like a sponge, it soaks everything up quickly. 

We enjoy pictures of our youngest granddaughter, Ivy, that Andy regularly sends us. Ivy really enjoys videoing with Sargie and me and seems to chatter nonstop. She's sure a sweetie pie.

I wish you and Mom could have been with us yesterday, Dad. We went to the Milligan Summerfest in Foster City. Since I'm still learning how to use the GoPro camera, the one that Sargie got me for my birthday, I had the wrong settings and none of the pictures I took turned out. (My regular camera is being fixed.)

Thankfully, our niece, Sasha, took a couple of pictures and Sargie one or two. This one's of our great niece, Aria, Sasha and Alex's baby girl. She just turned one year old a couple of weeks ago.

We had such a good time yesterday, Dad. Though it was raining, we spent the afternoon sitting under a huge porch or in the double garage gabbing and laughing. Mom attended many Milligan gatherings and she can fill you in on the family. No doubt, you'll love them as much as I do when you all meet someday. They still gather for the holidays and other occasions just like we used to many years ago. I think that's one of the reasons I love them so much. God, family, and country, are their first priorities. Everything else is secondary.

That's niece, Sasha, and me, on Saturday afternoon. It's tradition that we take a selfie together at every family gathering. (Oh yeah, that's Alex, Sasha's husband, who is photo bombing our moment. You'd really like Alex, Dad. He's a great young man, husband, and father.)

Sargie and I have been really busy this spring, Dad. We had our side/front yard landscaped with tons and tons of boulders being removed. Our pond and garden certainly keeps us busy as well as maintaining our forty-two acres. Sargie has taken over the mowing responsibilities. I try to spend time in my shop, but this time of the year, I don't get out there as much as I'd like. We have a garden house we're trying to finish and we'll start painting our home this next week. I love painting about as much as you do, Dad, and just like you, I seem to get more on me than on what I'm painting. Enough said on that, eh?

Though it's still a year and a half away, I'm actively training to hike the 2,190 mile long Appalachian Trail to celebrate my 70th birthday. They say less than fifty people, age 70 or over, have ever completed the through hike in one season. I'd sure like to be number 51. To keep this rapidly aging body in shape, I hike from three to seven miles every day. Assuming my body doesn't fall apart between now and then, you and I will, no doubt, have many good and long conversations as I trek through the mountains up the East Coast. Worry not, you'll be with me each and every mile along the way.

So, Dad, there's so much more I could tell you, but I need to get this day started. You have a great Father's Day and let Mom spoil you a bit, eh? Enjoy your charcoaled chicken and Lazy Daisy cake, give Mama a big ol' hug from Sargie and me, and keep one for yourself. 

Most of all, always know, Dad, how much I love and miss you.

OK, enough of that sentimental stuff. As you like to say, it's time to rock and roll.

After all, a man's work is never done.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.  I love you.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Taken in the late '40's, this was Mom's favorite picture of Dad while he was serving in the US Army. She looked at it often in her later years and described him as being "so handsome and good looking."