So today is Halloween, but far more important it’s my Dad’s 87th birthday.  And, if you can’t use your own blog for the purist form of nepotism, then what good is having a blog?

As I was growing up the poor guy never had a decent birthday dinner because every five minutes the door bell rang with kids screaming, “Trick or Treat”.   Then, finally when he might have had a minute to celebrate, my sister and I were begging to be cut loose to do our own candy run!   Even more pathetic, as I look back on it,  at the time he was in the wholesale candy business.  My sister and I had a whole warehouse of candy to choose from, but somehow going door to door on Halloween, the candy tasted better!

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Last year Bambi visited my folks and spent a morning with them.  The images taken that day have become some of my most cherished photographs.   Natural light, my parents relaxed in their own home with minimal time posing and working with a photographer they know well and trust, produced a series of  wonderful on-location images!

My Dad has been my best buddy for my entire life.    A few years ago he came with me to the PPA convention in Las Vegas.   I took Dad and Don Blair, both then in their 70’s,  to see Mystere (Cirque de Soleil).  The following day, in the Hasselblad booth, with at least a few hundred people around, Dad dropped to the floor, rolled onto his back, threw his hands and feet in the air  and yelled, “Come on Big Daddy, let’s show them what we learned last night!”  For a split second, I really thought Don was going to try a hand stand!   They both laughed, people looked at Dad as if to say, “Somebody help that poor man, he’s having a seizure and Dominic Iodice, President of PPA at the time, looked at me and said, “Wow, you never really had a chance did you?”  and then simply cracked up laughing!  

So, I admit it, I’m proud to be a chip off the old block.  No kid could ever be more proud of his Dad.  Happy Birthday Pop!  Sure do love ya!

Photographs by Bambi Cantrell.