Hello Love

     So, it seems fitting to honor my Dad on his actual birthday today with another Dad-related story that was put together recently. This one is Hello Love.

   

Sarah

Sarah was almost three years old in the spring of 1987. Her sister, Amanda, was only a few months old. We were living in Oklahoma, near Bartlesville. Back then, catalogs arrived in the mail almost daily. Pretty Good Goods was a catalog that caught my eye for the cute and quirky items inside. I did not know at the time, but the catalog was published by one of the public radio stations and a lot of the merchandise inside related to the Prairie Home Companion radio show.

     I was familiar with the show back then. But I was not a regular listener. And so when I picked out the red sweatshirt from the catalog that said Hello Love, on the front, I did not connect it with a song that Garrison Keillor sang frequently on Prairie Home Companion.

     It was just that I liked the sweatshirt!

     And I decided to order it for my dad for Fathers Day.

     When the Hello Love, sweatshirt arrived in the mail, I opened the package, unfolded the shirt, smiled, and then started to rewrap it to send to Dad.

     But then I got the idea to put the sweatshirt on Sarah and take her picture.

Amanda!

     Then I put Amanda in her baby swing and draped the sweatshirt over her. I took her picture.

     Back then, we had film in cameras – film had to get developed. So I waited for the prints of the two pictures, and put them in the box with the sweatshirt for Dad.

     My folks lived in St. Augustine, Florida in those days. I assumed the package arrived in time for Fathers Day, and I enjoyed the thought of Dad and Mom seeing not only the sweatshirt, but the pictures of the girls with Hello Love,.

     It was either the week after Fathers Day or maybe the week after that when we received a letter in the mail from St. Augustine. Mom wrote that Dad thanked us for the Fathers Day sweatshirt. And then along with the letter were pictures:

Mom

     One with Mom wearing Hello Love,

     And one with Dad wearing Hello Love,

Dad

     Smiling with absolute delight over the pictures, I

then discovered there was a third snapshot in the

Clancy - gotta love him!

envelope!

     This is none other than my parents'Clancy cat clearly enjoying his moment in the spotlight with the sweatshirt held up in front of him!

Who knows where the sweatshirt is today? But the pictures are here – still saying Hello Love after all these years!

20200621 59 Hello Love