`Dear Pops`
By Hal Haralson, Attorney (ret.)
Austin, TX
The letter came on April 12, 2005, from our son, Brad who is 42 years old. He is an attorney living is San Angelo with his wife, Rachel and sons, Matthew (three years old) and Weston (1 year old).
Brad writes:
"Dear Pops, It is hard to believe I write this on your seventieth birthday. It seems like only yesterday we were hunting in the high country at Live Oak Ranch or piling into `Old Red` to fish on Onion Creek at the Byrd Ranch.
I was cleaning out my truck and found an envelope with two letters in it. One of the letters was dated April 12, 1950 (your fifteenth birthday)."
The letter Brad was referring to was the only letter I ever received from my father. He wrote to me while I was in Dallas. A large growth had been found on my thyroid gland and I was in BaylorHospital for surgery. Papa wrote to my mother and me with news from the farm north of Loraine:
"You finally lost the little chick that was sick, but the others are doing good and growing. Your old pig is doing fine, so don`t worry about your livestock. Old Shep brought up a possum to the house last night from somewhere and bayed him right under my window. I got up and got the flashlight. When I saw what he had, I said, `Get him Shep` and he really did get him; just shook him to peases."
Brad`s letter to me continued:
"The second letter is dated September 26, 1966 written by you to Papa on his sixty-seventh birthday. You mention how much you are looking forward to showing Papa a good quail hunt over Thanksgiving, and then follow up with:
"I got to thinking the other day when Brad was with me moving cattle and riding in the cattle truck, that those are the most pleasant memories of my childhood. You have had a more profound influence on my life than any other man I have known. It was not from what you said or the `things` you gave me, but the way you lived-all the times you allowed us to `tag along` and the outdoor environment in which you allowed us to find ourselves. I want my children to have the same experience and I am enjoying this because it became a part of me as a boy and I have never gotten away from it."
Brad concludes:
"I cherish those two letters because they embody the legacy that you have passed on to me. They show me that being a good father is a day-by-day job and that the process is never over. I think you did such a good job raising us because you never lost sight of what Papa did for you. Papa set the standard for which you strived-just as you set the standard for me. I want you to know that as I teach Matthew and Weston how to aim a rifle, how to bait a hook, or build a fire, that you will be there standing with me, just as Papa stood with you and just as one day, I`ll stand with them as they pass on that legacy. I couldn`t have asked for a better father and I thank God for making me your son."
What greater birthday present could a father receive?
