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Sunday, June 18, 2006

Bruce Buchanan age 9 months with his mom Gerturde Buchanan

Happy Fathers Day.
My dad. He is from Helper Utah, a small mining town. He was born in San Diego, CA. He grew up at 16 South Main Street. He sold Halloween candy on the street the week after Halloween. He grew up walking to a malt shop and chatting with Al Vetri. He went to a catholic school in Junior High. He grew up fishing and hunting. His father was a hard working coal miner. His dad come home every day with black, soot covered hands. My dad said to himself. "I am going to get an education so I don't ever have to work on the mines. My dad got his PhD. He now has his own company and does land reclamation on strip mines in NM. Funny how we think we run away from something and we run right back to it. His office is on main street. He loves walking down the street and saying hi to friends, just like when he was a kid. He still fishes, almost every day. He always has a story for something. My dad knows no strangers. My dad was always the cool dad growing up that dressed so nice, just like he remembers his grandpa dressing. (picture above with his grandpa, Dad age 9 months.)He loves his children. He loves to ski and still goes every winter. He skis with grace not speed. He loves garage sales. He loves the mountains. He is one of the hardest workers I know. He never grounded us as kids, if we came home late or did something dumb we just had to listen to hours of stories of him growing up. He has overcome many trials in his life. The greatest gift he has given me is that he taught me that my Heavenly Father loves me. Happy Fathers day Dad. I love you!

5 comments:

Tasha said...

Those are awesome pictures.

I totally got chills when you wrote about your dad not wanting to mine and then doing land reclamation for strip mining, about us running away and coming back full circle. I guess its inevatable in some sense.

You are quite a writer kbc! I love it.

Jill said...

Seriously Kristi, you know how the pull on the heart strings and write personal tributes. Very cool.

Elisa said...

I love Uncle Bruce! He has always been so sweet to me. Everytime I see him, he tells me I am pretty. During those pudgy adolescent years it helped so much. It also helped that my very cool cousin Kristi paid attention to me. I was the only 5th grader with an ESPRIT bag who listened to Duran Duran.

Adam Buchanan said...

Thats awesome elisa....wow its cool to hear stuff about dad ive probably taken for granted all these years.

Anonymous said...

My Grampy (Skinny Wahl) was the best dressed man I ever knew. In a quite sort of way, he taught me I could do anything, as did my own Dad. My Dad died just as I started my Ph.D. and my Grampy died the month I finished my Ph.D. They were great examples and inspirations to me. My Dad taught me to love the outdoors, and my Grampy to love myself. I rarely dress up that I don't think of him. He was always kind, especially to me!