Photon Farms: Ode to my Dad

My Dad and I in my sophomore year at Calvin around 1983

I've set up my Macbook to have a lot of random family photos pop up. How appropriate that this one popped up today, two weeks before Father's Day. I admit I teared up a little as I thought back over my life and how much my Dad supported me on so many levels. My brother and I reminisce often on how gentle and loving he was to us both. We lost him in 2001 to cancer. We both still miss him very much.

Flash back to around 1970. I am five years old, sitting on my Father's lap in his easy chair and we are watching a variety show (Hee-Haw) together as a family. Out trots this goofball tenor sax player tooting the goofiest song I've ever heard with so much silly joy that I'm immediately drawn in and can't take my eyes off of him.

Who is this goofy guy? His name was Boots Randolph and his signature song Yakety Sax is embedded into the US and perhaps world consciousness. It is the soundtrack of so many silly video schticks including the Benny Hill show that it is hard to escape. Here is Boots performing it in 1977 to give you an idea of what the five year old me was experiencing.

The song finished and I snapped out of my entrancement and look at my Dad and say, "I want to play the saxophone".

My parents had already started fueling my love for music with the typical piano lessons. I suppose it was no surprise that when the opportunity came in my fourth grade year they made sure I got a saxophone and started learning to play it. They were like that with all my dreams and endeavors.

Fast forward through countless band concerts put on for long-suffering parents, marching band performances at chilly Michigan football games, State solo competitions etc. and you come to the day we took the photo above.

In that photo, my Dad as always was supporting me in my dreams which had led to me playing first chair alto in the Calvin College Symphonic Band. I had only borrowed the soprano sax he is holding, but the Yamaha student model I'm holding is the one they sacrificed and bought for me in fourth grade.

So here's to my Dad and all the fathers out there that support their kids in so many ways that they will probably only realize when they are gone from this life.

Love you Dad.

If it weren't for your and mom's support and love, I'd probably have never started 'practicing my sax' in the public arena with Beauty Will Save the World. I owe so much to you.