I was puzzled when I saw that my father listed Architect as his occupation. He was no architect. Then, I remembered the story that he told us girls about painting the dome on the capital building in Austin, Texas. He and his father, brother (?) and friends got a contract to paint the dome when the building was being renovated (?) repainted (?). I guess painting the dome of the State Capital of Texas qualified him to be an architect.

He couldn't have been an architect long. He was an Infantry Captain in France where an ear was shot off by an enemy Howitzer when he leaned up next to a hedgerow. He lost much of his hearing and the fleshy exterior of his ear. Sent to England for immediate recovery, he was later transferred to Ft. Bliss, Texas, where Army surgeons performed a pseudo plastic surgery on him. The result was less than satisfactory. The ear looked like a plastic surgeon wannabe had done the job. But in a time of war, people made do with what they had.

My father was not happy about the results on his ear, but it did not hinder him from winning the hand of my beautiful mother in marriage, rearing five daughters, and becoming a history teacher and school administrator who was respected and loved by all his co-workers.

His lifelong motto--one from which he never deviated--was from the Disney movie BAMBI. When Thumper the rabbit got into trouble and bad-mouthed, his father rabbit would say, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

I wish I could be more like my father.

Raymon E Patton