17 Years

My dad died 17 years ago today.  I have thought about him alot the last few days, more especially yesterday when my friend's (Mindy Leavitt) dad passed away and then alot today.  Here are 17 things that I can remember about him.
1.  He took us all to Yellowstone in our big gray van hooked up to our camp trailer.
2.  He ordered coal every winter to burn in our fireplace.
3.  One year, a day or two before Christmas I found him in my room drilling a hole in the wall between my parents room and my room and pulling wires through.  He was connecting a phone line to my room.  That was the year I got a turquoise blue phone.
4.  He had a money clip.  It was gold and had an S on it with crystals or diamonds or something set in it.  The "S" was for Southland Coorporation who he worked for.  They were the company that owned 7-11.
5.  He roto-tilled our garden every spring.
6.  He built us a cool playhouse.
7.  He always gave my mom and all of us girls corsages for Mother's Day.
8.  He used to work in the basement with our neighbor Paul Uri.  They were building a computer.
9.  I can see him the day the basement flooded in the front yard of our house digging through the snow that was about a foot deep, looking for the water main to shut off the water.
10.  He had a red Nissan Pulsar that I totally loved to drive.  Erin and I almost drove to Evanston in it one time but I got nervous so we turned around.
11.   He wanted to video tape everything.  We had to wait for him to get the video camera set up on the tripod before we could come out to see what Santa or the Easter bunny brought.
12.  He liked our hair all curly for Sunday so my mom would wash our hair in the sink and spend the evening rolling it in pink curlers.
13.  He always had a black plastic comb in his back pocket.
14. He did not like to hunt or fish.
15.  He had 1000 long sleeved dress shirts that I got paid 50 cents each to iron on Saturdays.  I hated it.
16.  He was a runner.  He ran lots of marathons.
17.  He was always bringing home new and interesting treats because he was the buyer for 7-11 and the companies gave him samples to try. 
Love you and miss you dad.