Happy Birthday
Dad. Today would have been my Dad's 74th birthday.
My dad was taken from me by cancer almost 15 years ago.
I miss his sense of humor, his loyalty, and his advice. My
dad was born in western Pennsylvania in the 1930s. He moved
to New Jersey with his family as a child and they settled in a small
town called Ramsey. He went to school there leaving just
prior to his graduation (he did graduate but skipped the ceremony) to
join the Air Force where he served his time training radar operators
throughout the country. One of his favorite places that he
was stationed was Alaska. When Dad got home from the
service, he surprised his family by going into police work, starting in
a part time position in a three or four man department in the 1950s and
ending his career as a Chief of Police in the early 1980s. During that
time he was very active in the goings on around Ramsey.
Serving on the ambulance corps and on the planning board in
town. He retired and went on to have some time to relax
before his diagnosis and battle with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
I often think of him and miss him a lot.
The strange
thing about today is that I did not realize today was the 4th of
September until a few minutes ago. This morning, I was
responding to a post by Jesse Clifton about a recent trip he
took to celebrate the end of summer up north and my Dad was there with
me looking at the great photos of his favorite state. Later I
was thinking of strange names for streets in response to a blog by Jeff Dowler and there Dad was again
with a memory of the time he from his planning board days when fought a
developer over some trees that were not going to allow safe exit onto
the roadway. The developer lost the battle and named the
street Lost Trees Lane. All of a sudden I looked at the date
and realized it was his birthday. I guess he is trying to let
me know he is still here with me and always will be in the memories and
moments I treasure.
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Paddy Pizappi PineBush & Hudson Valley NY Real Estate 
