Happy Father's Day - from Alma Christopher

Happy Father's Day Dad!I guess my the role of "father" makes a little more sense now that I have my own little boy at home. I now feel the combination of joy and frustration, patience and impatience, and love that I imagine will only get more extreme as time goes on.

I have many memories of you and me throughout my years at home. Some good, some bad, some emotional, others just funny.

Christmas was always a magical time due to your elvish ways. Stockings, candles, lights, music, and Christmas morning all added to wonderful memories.

Making the doll bed for RaeAnna was a great project that you basically created for me but I felt that i had enough input for it to be from me.

Constructing my Pinewood derby car- it was horribly slow. It did however prove we had an eye for design as we won the "best looking car" award.

Saturday basketball- I grew up watching you play basketball many Saturday mornings. I still have a love of it and still go every Saturday morning.Which reminds me of "Dad's last game." We do use the word famous a lot, but I think it applies here. After weeks of begging Dad to come and watch us play he finally did. Not only did he come to watch, he came to play. He had already "hung up his shoes" almost 10 years earlier and gave them to someone in another ward. He came out and showed his "old stuff" without missing a beat. He hit every shot he took. A 12 foot jumper, a 3 pointer, a baby hook, a left and right hook, and a left hand jump shot. All the boys were there so ask any of us for verification. He, like Michael Jordan, then re-retired. Who knows, with the new shoulder he may be back.

I rolled a large water container down the hill in Midland and broke the basement window. I sincerely thought I was dead. I somehow found the courage to tell you and could not imagine what would happen next as I was sure my life was over. You said that you were glad that I was honest and that I told you. That was it, I couldn't believe it.

Dad also tuned me in to NPR. Despite the part Dad calls "throw away time" I enjoy the news. I also enjoyed listening to NPR and football on the radio in the workroom with Dad.

Throwing the football has always been special. I guess just spending time throwing something back and forth creates a bond.

Pretending to be asleep after coming home in the car was always beneficial as a kid. You always knew that Dad would carry you in and put you in bed. Also the rides to bed were awesome and I give the same ride to little Alma now.

Model airplanes. I love them and hate them. They are so fun to fly, yet always break.

I remember that Dad and I took a trip together to Minneapolis. He had a conference and so I spent the time on the elevators. We did go out and explore a bit. We actually went through a drive through and collected a ton of money that people had dropped. I can't remember if this was the trip but my memory is placing the occurrence at the same time. Dad ordered some milk and the lady said, "It's bowled" Dad said "huh?", she said " It's spolled", Dad responded "it's spolled?" "No!" she said, It's spoiiiillledd!!"

I was always very appreciative of you attending my events and wanted you to be proud.

You would take us to Dow and we would run around the freaky dark basement offices after hours in search of secretary's candy stashes. Man, no wonder I am afraid of the dark. Dad's office plus getting to the bathrooms during a movie at the Midland public library, or at "The Theater" multiplied by our Midland basement late at night equals sheer terror.

There are many other memories that I will save for future entries but I can say that the best experience I have had was the summer Dad and I rode to work with each other every day. We had very honest discussions about many topics and listened to conference talks. It was very special to me.

Well, love you and I' glad you are my Dad.

I wish you may and I hope you might know you're a great Dad tonight.
Alma Christopher Clark