Dear Dad 1/1/21 Holidays

 

I always think of past holidays this time of year. Remember mom always greeting her siblings loudly with “Chrismas eve gift”; but never knew the origin of this. Many years we spent Christmas eve at Grandma Wann’s house with Santa Claus almost always making it to our house before we got home later in the evening. We must have been on the earliest part of his route.




I recall riding around with Grandad McIntire looking for a prospective Christmas tree growing in a neighbor’s pasture fence. The small misshapen cedar trees looked nothing like traditional trees, but they were my favorite. And I looked forward to the gumdrop tree Grandmother decorated with colored gumdrops, to this day this was was the only time I ever ate them.




While most think of fireworks for New Year’s or July 4th, not so with my cousins and me. Fireworks became a Christmas tradition.




It’s been a very different holiday this year. First-year without mom and so much isolation from family and friends because of the pandemic. Looking forward to a healthier and happier new year.

Mom and Dad 60 years 06/07

December 2006

 

Dad and Mom have been doing this volunteer activity for several years. This picture is from the local newspaper, taken in mid December. The extra hand in the picture belongs to Mom.

Clinton Junior McIntire

80 Years & Counting
HAPPY BIRTHDAY

The Early Years

Junior was born in Dallas, June 19, 1926 to Clint and Cleo McIntire. At about age 2 the family moved to a ranch near Bluff Dale. The ranch, Three Circle, belonged to Sid Richardson, one of the original wealthy oil families in Texas. Clinton started to school in a one room school in Cedar Point.





Ms. Winnie Browning, now 92, was once a school teacher in Cedar Point. She was 18 years old and had about 25 students, grades 1-8, in a one-room school. She says there was a mesquite tree behind the school which served as a hitching post for the mounts of students who rode to school on horseback. The only water source was a cistern. Everyone drank from the same dipper. The school had a wood burning stove on which Winnie sometimes cooked a pot of soup or beans. On her first day of teaching, Winnie bent over to one of the first-graders and asked for his name. The reply came "Clinton McIntire, Junior, but they just call me Junior." "When is your birthday?" she asked. "It's N_____ Day" he replied. Junior and his older brother, Lloyd, and sister, Irene all attended school in Cedar Point. They lived on the Three Circle Ranch and rode a horse to school. Later they attended Bluff Dale and Tolar schools.

From interview with Winnie Browning by Sheila Maine




Clint (his dad) share cropped some farm land on the ranch along with managing the ranch. They raised broom corn, popcorn and some other cash crops. They would travel to Keene, TX to sell the tassels harvested from the broom corn. In Keene this crop was made into brooms. One of the neighbors was an excellent trapper. Clinton remembers one time when the neighbor trapped 4 particularly large raccoons. After they were skinned, so the skins could be sold. Clint and the trapper dressed them out and Cleo made chili from them. To quote Clinton “That was the best chili I ever had”.



Clinton Jr. and I both grew up on the Three Circles Ranch in Earth County, as you know; I remember moving from Ft. Worth to the ranch when I was about five years old. Clinton was two or so. I do not remember living anywhere else so it was there until I went to Tarleton, from there to WW2 and I never returned but Clinton did and has lived in Hood County for the past 58-60 yrs. When we lived on the ranch we went to a one room school house at Cedar Point, sometimes we walked and sometimes we rode horses to school. We swam and fished in Richardson creek. Our dad leased all the farm land from the ranch and we grew oats, and had a lot of hay. It was a share cropping thing but the ranch bought every thing we raised and they allowed us some cotton acreage which was our money crop. Clinton and I had two acres of popcorn we raised and sold for ourselves. We hunted and trapped for some extra money, maybe we were poor but I always thought we were rich. Clinton was a much better shot than I was, so when we went hunting he almost always got something..

Lloyd McIntire, brother

When Junior was still very young, probably 7-9, there was a new fence built around the Three Circle ranch. Dad was the water boy for the crew of local men. He carried the water in a cart behind his pony. This was when he first had the nickname Tuffy. Because the nicknames Tuffy and Junior were mostly used, many never knew his real name.


Reminiscing about my cousin and special friend, Clinton (Junior) McIntire:
The first time I remember seeing Junior was when my family paid a Sunday visit. He and his family were living on a cattle ranch west of the Paluxy River and south of bluff dale. His father was ranch manager. On that visit and others Junior, his brothers and I tried our hand at fishing, swimming, and hunting.
The first year I played football at Tolar, Tolar played Bluff Dale. I'm not sure who won, but I was surprised to find Junior playing half-back. He was in football uniform from the waist up; below that he was wearing blue jeans and leather cowboy boots. Junior's team mates called him "toughie". He soon proved why. He ran very fast, boots and all. And if he saw someone was going to tackle him, he tried to run right through them. He hurt you!

Jerry Barton, cousin

In the Navy

On June 8, 1944, less than two weeks from his 18th birthday, as many young men of his era were doing, Junior enlisted in the military. He tells the story of traveling by train to the first assignment in the Navy. He considered himself old enough to smoke and bought a pack of Lucky Strikes for the train trip. He got so sick he never smoked again.

Dad served on a gunboat that followed a minesweeper in the Pacific. The boat was a troop landing craft (LICL) converted to hold three 40mm guns. This conversion was an LCIG, his boat was the LCIG729. The minesweeper would cut the mines loose and when they floated to the surface Junior’s boat would then shoot them so they would explode.

Love and Marriage

After completing school through the 9th grade in Bluff Dale, Junior attended school in Tolar. While there he met Cynthia Wann. After returning from the Navy, he and Cynthia were wed on June 28, 1947. They immediately moved to Florida where, for the next 6 months, Junior worked with his brother Lloyd installing floors. They then moved back to Dallas for one month and to Fort Worth for one month. By early 1948, they were in Paluxy, Texas, where Cynthia grew up. They have been there ever since.

Life In Paluxy

From the late 40s to 1964 Junior worked almost exclusively on the Farm at Paluxy. He and Cynthia had three children: Terry in 1950, Sheila in 1954 and Sharon in 1960. He and Cynthia worked to make a living on the farm, living in the old rock house on the place, built in about the 1860s. In 1963 they built the house where they now live, just up the hill on the 100 acres they had purchased a few years earlier.



I imagine it was when we were in our late twenties to early thirties when Mr. Wann mentioned finding a large oak tree with bees in it. There was quite a bit of discussion about how to go about robbing a bee tree like this one with its large amount of honey, without getting stung, or at least not much. Junior volunteered mesh fruit or onion sacks to go over our heads, and even had a large long bladed chain saw we could use. We were soon on our way. Just Junior and I, everyone else was busy. We arrived at the site, up on Pony Creek. First we built a fire to generate some smoke. Then Junior cut the tree trunk, dropping the tree in the Pony Creek channel. Junior volunteered to walk up the slanting tree trunk with the chain saw to about 8 to 10 feet off the ground, since he was familiar with operating the saw. Then he began to saw out a section of the tree trunk near the bees, bending over the running saw. When he lifted the running saw to move the blade to a new location, a tragedy almost occurred. The chain saw blade caught on the mesh fruit sack and jerked the blade up into Junior's face. Junior turned loose of the heavy (now stopped) saw, which fell to the ground and jerked Junior off the trunk and onto the ground too. Junior then grabbed his bleeding face, said "I’m hurt", and took off running. He later said he was trying to get away from the bees. I had to catch him down the trail a way before I could examine him to see the extent of his injury. All the time I was thinking that he possibly had his head partly cut off and I was sick, thinking how unnecessary this activity was. It turned out the saw stopped just in time. The blade cut Junior's chin, cheek, and a 1" slit in his eyebrow, which bled profusely. We were so happy it wasn't worse. I don't know who finished robbing the bee tree, but it wasn't us.

Finally, when we had one or two children, I was concerned about who would raise them if my wife and I were killed simultaneously in an aircraft crash, car wreck, explosion, etc. We went to Junior and Cynthia and asked them if they would take our children and raise them with proper moral upbringing, etc. And they said they would. How nice, good, and kind. I appreciate that --- then and now.
Jerry Barton, cousin








In 1964 Junior began work at Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth, where he worked until 1988. He sometimes claimed to be road foundered over the years of commuting 1 ½ hours each way for work. But usually he was in a car pool and he made some very good friends over the years. Every day for almost the entire time Junior worked at Bell, he played in the World Championship Domino Tournament at meal breaks, and the best domino players in the world were right there at Bell.

Junior may have saved the life of one of his coworkers who started to choke one day at work. The coworker couldn’t talk or breathe. He had recently seen a demonstration of the Heimlich maneuver on TV. He was able to successfully use it on his friend.

Dad

Ropes of Farming

I have always known that Mom & Dad loved each other and have always done everything together. It was never so obvious to me as when Mom had her heart surgery. When they were about to take her to the operating room it seemed Mom looked at Dad and everyone else disappeared. A look of pure love and support twinkled in their eyes. I would say the same was true with Dads recent stay in the hospital. He wanted Mom there; she was the one that really mattered. Dad and Mom have given us the gift of loving each other so deeply.

Recently, when we have been trying to learn the ropes of farming Dad said I could learn to drive the tractor. It only took 45 years, maybe I should have been a boy.

Anyway, Mom said Dad would always tell her she could do something and she never doubted herself because he told her she could. Too bad we cannot bottle this up and sell it. Mutual respect, love and confidence for almost 60 years.

Sharon

Skiing

Somewhere around the late 1960's, Lake Granbury was born. Dad bought a used ski boat. It wasn't too much to look at, but many of my favorite family memories are of times in that boat. I really don't remember that Dad ever skied, but he was a great driver for Terry, myself and anyone else who came along and wanted to water-ski. I remember that many times we would connect the boat to the pickup,
Sheila

Mom would prepare a picnic supper and we would meet Dad in Granbury on his way home from working all day at Bell. After eating a bit, he would pull us around the lake until near sundown. Those were fun times.

Driving Lessons

One of my earliest recollections is learning to drive from Dad. When I was 4 or 5 Dad used to let me steer the old Ford pick up truck in the hay fields. He would pull the hand throttle out slightly and get the truck moving very slowly. My job was to steer the truck between 2 rows of hay bales without running over any. Dad or Dad and a hired hand would load the hay as we slowly moved down the row. When the truck was loaded, Dad would step onto the running board, open the door, slide me over and stop the truck. Most of the time I think I did pretty good but I do remember a couple of very big slow bumps as I ran over the one of the bales.

As I got a little older (8 or 9?), I could reach the clutch well enough to start and stop the truck, but not always very smoothly. On more than one start, my clutch release was so rough much of the hay was shaken off the truck. Dad and the hired help had to reload the truck several times as I learned. As I think back, I must have shortened the life of a few clutches. Dad was always very patient with my driving, even when he had to reload the whole truck.

About as early as I learned to drive the truck in the fields, I learned to operate the old farm tractors we had. By the time I was 10 or 11, I was plowing or cutting hay by myself. We had this model 60 John Deere, which was made in the early 50s’. It had a hand clutch you pushed to engage and pulled to disengage. The front wheels were the old tricycle style, set very close together.

Not too long after I was able to operate the tractor in the field, Dad let me drive from our house to one of the fields we farmed. This was quite a treat. I drove the tractor, in road gear the 2-3 miles running wide open all the way. I was probably going about 12-13 miles per hour, but sitting between the big rear tires with no fenders, the wind in my face, going down a gravel county road, I thought I was really moving. Then I had to stop.

My destination was a field Dad was renting from a couple of elderly neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Byrum. There was a 90-degree turn over a slight mound of gravel into the field. The field gate consisted of two parts, a small old single metal bed frame on one side and a much longer very weathered wooden gate opening out in the opposite direction. I approached still at top speed. A few feet before the entrance I pulled the throttle back, but momentum carried me at near the same speed. I was going too fast to safely make the turn and started pushing the clutch, and then frantically pushing the clutch so I could brake and make the turn into the field. The clutch didn’t release and I pushed harder. Dad, who was watching from just inside the gate yelled “Pull the clutch”, but I was going too fast and went straight over the old wooden gate and through the barb wire fence. As the fence was splintering and wires were snapping, I realized what Dad was yelling and pulled the clutch. The engine disengaged and I was soon stopped. The old gate looked like it had exploded. Some pretty good kindling was all that was left. For the next hour I helped Dad fix the fence and build a new gate. Because wire and a couple of cedar posts were our only building materials, we built a wire gate. I think Dad was afraid Mr. Byrum would be upset with the loss of his old gate. As it turned out, he had no attachment to the old gate and actually seemed glad to have the lighter weight wire gate. And my driving improved.

Terry, from www.pulltight.blogspot.com

Cow Chips

Cow Chips and A Lot of Love
When I think of Junior, what comes to mind right away is that he sets an example of the ideal family man. His ambitions are focused towards goals of providing for loved ones. The McIntire priorities are hard work, taking care of family, and community awareness. Cynthia and Junior accept everyone as an individual and only have everyone’s best interest and happiness in mind. Ever since meeting Junior and Cynthia on a November day in 1985, I immediately felt accepted as part of the family.
Nothing is ever too much trouble or inconvenient for Junior and Cynthia. From running out to pick up Shooter, the favorite granddog, to babysitting the kids when Terry and I were working, to taking care of me during illness, I know I can always count on them.
Out of all the love and support Junior and Cynthia have shown me, the most precious gift is their active role as grandparents to Lauren and Austin. From infancy and as they grow to adulthood Memaw and Papaw have been warm, giving and loving grandparents. Some of my fondest memories are of them holding and caring for Lauren and Austin when they were babies. Austin has always relished in the role of grandchild. At age 2 he was wandering through the pasture with a dried cow chip. Papaw picked Austin up and as they walked towards me, Austin flung the chip towards me from the protection of papaw’s arms. As I jumped and yelped, I am not sure who laughed the hardest. All I recall is three generations of McIntire’s laughing at me. That laugh was the most noise I have ever heard from Junior in over 20 years.
Junior and Cynthia have treated me as a daughter I am fortunate to be part of the McIntire family. When I reflect on my life achievements, it is Lauren and Austin McIntire that stand out the most. They are the light of my life and I am proud that they will carry on the McIntire name. Junior and Cynthia’s influence contributed in many ways to the people Lauren and Austin are today.

Junior, enjoy your 80th birthday and we look forward to sharing the years ahead together. Mom and Dad, thank you for all your love and support!
With love, Nancy

Slideshow

Putting the video slide show and book together with Dad for Papaw was more fun than work. Papaw has accomplished incredible things in his 80 years with us and I really enjoyed looking through and organizing all of the old pictures. For the most part, I see Dad and Papaw as almost the same person except for a thirty year age difference. Dad inherited moral ethics and values from Papaw that I’m lucky enough to have myself.
I’ve never known anyone who worked so hard to provide for his family. Papaw has always been selfless and caring. Even now, when he and Meemaw stay in Arlington to watch Austin and I, Papaw wakes both of us up early and we all eat breakfast together. On really cold days Papaw always goes outside and starts my car for me so its heats up before I leave for school. I really admire Pawpaw and Meemaw, and the unconditional love and respect they have for each other. I remember staying at the ranch when I was younger and watching them sit out back together every morning, drinking their coffee and watching the sunrise. After Papaw’s accident, Meemaw refused to leave his side. I don’t blame her. After almost 60 years of marriage and even more years of history together, I wouldn’t be able to leave either. I hope to find the same relationship they share with someone some day.


Lauren McIntire

Cowboys don't wear nail polish

When I was much younger, maybe 7 or 8, I was talking to my grandma and telling her how much I loved being out in the country and she simply replied that everyone did when they were younger. I knew I wouldn’t be like that though. I am always going to enjoy being out at the farm and so far those are still my feelings. Even though I’m out in the country less and less, most of my favorite memories are out there. I remember spending weeks at a time out there waking up early having the best breakfasts and then learning how to drive a tractor. I would sit in grandpa’s lap with my hands on the steering wheel helping drive. That’s one thing I will never forget. My most fond memory of the farm though is going out and feeding the cows with my grandpa. Out there I always felt intimidated by the enormousness of the cows especially because at that time I was barely over 3 feet tall but grandpa would just walk through the herd so nonchalantly that I couldn’t do anything less than admire and love him. I still do and I always will, which is something that I can only say about a handful of people in my life. My grandfather is one the greatest men I know and will ever know and it would be the achievement of a lifetime if I could live to be the man that he and my father both are.

Austin McIntire

Role Model

J.C. Haley

This Old Cowboy

"This Old Cowboy"

He grew up in one of the smallest Texas towns,
Workin' hard on the farm 'til the sun would go down,
He had a little pony he road to school that would buck
him off on the way,
And his old friends from school still call him tuffy
to this very day,
(chorus)
This old cowboy is wise beyond his days,
This old cowboy will never change his ways,
If you know him well, you'll admire the way he lives,
And if I ever make it to 80, I hope to be half the man
he is,
He joined the navy at 17 to fight in WWII,
Nobody made him it was just the right thing to do,
He came back home found a pretty little country girl
to make his wife,
They had three kids and after over 50 years later
she's still the love of his life,
(Chorus)
And now he's livin' proof that nothin' runs like a
deere,
Because one ran him over and they said he wouldn't
make it, but he's still here,
They sure don't make them like they use to
any more,
They really broke the mold when they made
my papa for
sure.
(Chorus)

Clint Maine

Feeding the Cows

I remember watching Papaw feed the cows from a window from my parents house and the big grin he would get on his face when he would do a donut in the pasture to sling the hay off his flatbed pickup.

April Maine

Traveling Man

After Junior retired, he and Cynthia caught the traveling bug. They have seen much of the country from tour buses. And some of the world beyond the States on a cruise. In 1992, they bought a travel trailer and joined the Comanche Peak SAMS. They have camped with this same group almost every month to this day.

Save the Paluxy

Junior has always had a strong sense of community and has occasionally been active in local politics. In the early 1980s, a lake was proposed that would cover almost the entire family farm. Junior, his family and neighbors organized for a fight that would last for the next 20 years. Utimately, it was a successful one.



One of the most memorable statements, I ever heard from Junior was at the first meeting concerning the damming of the Paluxy River in Glen Rose on February 25, 1985. The modern day carpet baggers were explaining their plan to take private property to develop a shallow mud hole in the Paluxy Valley.
Somewhere in my records, there is a note card with his exact words.
When a speaker noted the size of the project, your Dad spoke up with words were something like “that would be all of the bottom land, and, they are not taking any of it".
For a moment, the room and the speaker, got kind of quiet.
I guess those words were the first salvo (from the Save the Paluxy / Dinosaur Valley association ) of a 20 + year conflict.

Mike Allen, friend, neighbor, fellow river defender

(note – after the 20 + years, no bottom land has been taken from anyone)

Nothing Runs Like a Deere

The following are excerpts from www.pulltight.blogspot.com. As one of our relatives wrote to me “just what you need when you are about to turn 80 is to get run over by a tractor”.

Terry

FRIDAY, APRIL 07, 2006
Nothing Runs Like a Deere

Yesterday while working in Fort Worth, I received a call there was an accident on the farm and Dad was on his way by Careflight helicopter to Harris Medical Center. He had been in a tractor accident. I was in the parking lot next door and came directly to the ER.

As I arrived at the ER, I received a call from my brother in law, Ken. It seems that while Mom and Dad were moving hay from a field to near their house, Dad was run over by the tractor. Being the first to the ER, a security guard escorted me to a family room and immediately one of the hospital chaplains came to see me. He had just come from seeing Dad. He said Dad was alert and on his way for a CT scan. He told Dad he would pray for him and he said Dad thanked him. I refrained from telling the Chaplin of the study just completed about prayer. It seems that patients who know they are prayed for in fact may have more complications than patients that do not know.

Mom gave me the story of what happened………… They were through loading the truck using the tractor to lift the large round bales of hay. Mom was going to drive the tractor back to the house, about a two-mile trip. Dad came over and stood between the front and rear wheels to put the tractor in road gear with Mom seated on the tractor. The tractor immediately lurched forward. Either the clutch was not engaged or it immediately disengaged. Dad was knocked beneath the rear wheel. Mom stopped the tractor within a few feet and came back to Dad.

Dad sat up and then lay back on the grass. The nearby road was very lightly traveled so Mom got back on the tractor to go home and call 911, about two miles at around 15 mph. When she was almost home, she managed to stop some gas field workers to call 911. When the EMS came, they immediately called for Careflight based on the possibility of internal or head injuries.

The paramedics asked Dad if he had ever ridden in a helicopter. “No, but I built them for 24 years.” He later remarked that his first helicopter ride was pretty rough.

When I first saw Dad, his head above and around his right eye looked as if part of a softball had been inserted beneath the skin and then painted various shades of purple, red and blue. His right ear, which was badly injured, was heavily bandaged. The actual injuries consisted of, in addition to the ear, a fractured skull, broken ribs on both sides of his chest, a broken collarbone and quite a few bruises and abrasions. Later that night he was doing well enough that he and the plastic surgeon listened to the baseball game as his ear was being repaired.



This is now two days later and he is doing pretty well. No internal or brain injuries have surfaced to this point. He is in the Trauma ICU, but it seems pretty much for observation only. The ribs are sore and his head around his right eye is swollen and discolored. He has many small abrasions and bruises. His ear looks pretty much like an ear again. The single piece of cartilage in his ear was in about 30 pieces before the reconstruction. He is getting a couple of units of blood today because his hemoglobin remains low.

He thinks he will get out of the ICU today and probably out the hospital in a couple of days. That seems overly optimistic, but maybe when the medical staff realizes he needs to finish moving the hay, they will expedite his release. Probably not.

Nothing makes you appreciate the fragility of life like hanging out a couple of days around the ER and ICU units of a trauma center. We are hopeful that Dad will have a complete recovery, but I look around and see the other families and patients with lives forever changed.


SATURDAY, APRIL 08, 2006
ICU
Dad was up sitting in a chair in his ICU room this morning. The main concern for the time is preventing pneumonia, the most likely severe complication. He is getting regular food (maybe that is overstating hospital food), although his appetite is not good. He is starting on a nutritional drink today (even worse than hospital food). As his appetite gets better, we will bring in food.

Mom and I looked at his chest X-Rays with the ICU nurse this morning. You can see the increased congestion in his lungs today as opposed to when he arrived at the hospital on Wednesday. It is good his lungs are as clear as they are, but he still may not avoid going on a ventilator for a few days. We also learned that there are more fractures than we initially thought. He has fractures in his shoulder in addition to his collarbone.

By looking at the X-Rays, I would guess the tractor knocked him down. The rear wheel went up his right side breaking ribs laterally. The wheel continued over his shoulder breaking his collarbone and shoulder, then over the side of his head fracturing his skull, and damaging his ear. There is a bruise on his forehead matching the tread of the tractror tire. Mom seems sure the tractor went over him and this seems the most likely scenario based on his injuries.

Last night when I was in the room with him, he was concerned about this year’s hay crop and who could take care of farming operations for him short term. Once you are a farmer or rancher you are always a farmer or rancher. I remember an interview with an older farmer a few years ago. He was asked what he would do if he won a $1,000,000 in the lottery. His answer “Well, I guess I could afford to keep farming.”


SUNDAY, APRIL 09, 2006
ICU continued
Dad is really down today. Perhaps it is a combination of his age, the pain and the medications. His vital signs all look good and his lungs are slightly better per the ICU nurse, but that isn't doing anything to lift his spirits. He is being started on meds that should make him feel better. More later.


MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2006
Dad update - ups and downs
The meds helped Dads perspective on life by Sunday evening and he is again thinking he going to recover. Sunday night his heart rate went to the 170s, but with the cardiologist recommended treatment Monday evening it was back to normal. The main short term concerns are keeping his lungs clear and correcting a low sodium. He was up taking a very few steps today and will be again tomorrow. He is probably looking at quite a few more days in ICU.

TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2006
Dad update
Just talked to Mom and Sharon. Dad's heart rate seems to be in control today. And he ate some breakfast this morning after eating almost nothing yesterday. His primary Dr from the ER, said he will be using a walker today.

He will be getting salt tablets to increase his Sodium. I remember when athletes and manual labor workers used to take them before sports drinks were available.


WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2006
Dad 041206
I spent the night at the hospital last night with Dad and Mom; my sisters have spent the other nights and that has been very good for Mom. Mom hasn’t left the hospital for more than an hour in the last week. Dad seemed uncomfortable and restless most of the night. He is getting more aggressive respiratory treatments starting today. These will sometimes involve a nasal tube. The goal is still keeping him off a ventilator. The report this afternoon - he was not nearly as restless after a change in the pain medications and he took a few steps aided by a walker. Still no word on when he might move from ICU


FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2006
Dad 4/14/06
Dad seemed much better yesterday and this morning. Lung cultures are still negative, Sodium is back within normal range and vital signs look good. He is much more like himself after changes in medication. He smiled at a couple of bad jokes by the ICU nurse and me. Mom is going home for a few hours today for the first time since the accident. He is still in ICU, but we are optimistic he will be in a room soon.


SUNDAY, APRIL 16, 2006
Continued Progress
Sunday 4/16/06

Dad entertained Austin and me, yesterday, with stories from his Navy experiences in the 40s. He continues to improve. His doctor this morning told us, he may go to a regular room today, depending on one set of lab results and the availability of a bed (hospital is really full). It will be good to see him escape ICU.

Mom has become the matriarch of the ICU waiting room. I think she knows every patient's story and all of their visiting family members. The other families will miss her when she and Dad go another part of the hospital.


TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2006
Home Soon
Dad continues to improve rapidly considering the extent of his injury. He will possibly be coming home in the next 2-3 days. He is walking around the hospital floor with minimal assistance, with a walker that he is actually not using. All his tubes, IV lines and oxygen were removed today. I jokingly suggested to him, he should work with the physical therapist on stepping high enough to get on a farm tractor.



THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2006
Tractor

Dad is recovering nicely with no complication except it was discovered last week he has a broken leg. He complained that it began to hurt after walking. An X-ray was ordered and yep it is broken. The tractor here is the one from the accident.


WEDNESDAY, JUNE 07, 2006
Nothing Runs Like a Deere, Revisited
I guess no one who knows Dad and has seen him make such a rapid recovery from his accident (see entry Nothing Runs Like a Deere), will be surprised. Monday, two days shy of two months since his accident and two weeks short of his 80th birthday, Dad was back on one of his farm tractors.