My Boogie is 33 today! I still vividly recall the lunacy of my early ‘father of the year’ days. It started by driving from Tulsa to Bartlesville in the literal middle of the night, in our TransAm, at speeds of 110 to 130 mph; the speedometer was rarely under triple digits. That is not an exaggeration. Running red lights, running stop signs, jumping road blocks; nothing was going to stop me. I thought Pam was going to give birth to Jackie any second, and at age 20 & 21, we were too young and stupid to think about going to a Tulsa hospital! Her Dr. was in Bartlesville, so that is where we thought we had to go. The thought never occurred to me that had I wrecked, there would be at least 3 deaths (hoping who I hit would have survived too), instead of 1 birth . . .
Now, these were also the days when car seats were not around. Yes, hard to believe, but absolutely true. Jackie was carried in a little baby carrier everywhere we went, not seat belted in, and on 100’s+ occasions, as Jackie grew, she would sit perched on the arm rest of our TransAm(s) peering out from every direction. And that was if she was not sitting in my lap helping me drive. God’s grace kept us from ever wrecking, but what a tragedy that would have been.
Not to outdo my early stupidity, but Jackie also used to sit between my legs, and tool around the mobile home park on my motorcycle with me; sans helmet! I don’t know why I am admitting to this foolishness; maybe because most everyone already knew about it. Looking back though, I sincerely cannot believe what an imbecile I was. Parents like that today would be locked up.
But now, my precious daughter has 2 little sons of her own; and I am uber cautious with them whenever they are traveling with Pappy. Yes, WP loves to feel the power and torque of the Corvette rocketing through space ~ but we don’t really do that. He has ridden with me a few times in the ‘go fast’ car, but to him, go fast doesn’t take much effort to impress him, as he is used to the feeling of his Mom’s big Buick SUV lumbering down the highway. Shoot, I could ‘punch it’ in Nini’s Lexus, and he’d think he was in a speeding bullet by comparison.
Jackie’s teen years were my favorite years; as they are filled with memories from the joys of Aerospace America air shows, 6 Flags roller coasters, beaches, gymnastics, cheerleading, cheerleading shoes, outfits, camps, and routines rehearsed-rehearsed-rehearsed.
During her teen years, we also enjoyed Andrea being our 3rd daughter, late night Mazzio pizza buffets after all the football and basketball games, playing basketball with the CCS gang at our home, spelling words drilled and repeated, drilled and repeated, math problems, algebra problems, boy problems, young punk problems, dirty scum not fit to speak to my daughter problems, constant busy signals on the phone, Tetris, trivial pursuit, monopoly, and step counting. J
Oh how many times did the CCS boys think they were going to take the old-man to school, and yet they were the ones leaving the driveway court that night shaking their heads from getting schooled on head-fakes, dunks, and me making 3-pointers from the 4-pointer lines. Yes, that was fun. I couldn’t do it now, but it sure was great to do it to them 15 years ago!
Jackie’s cheerleading efforts netted her All-American status during her Sr. year, and her scholastic skills netted her a MidFirst partial scholarship, as is it did also with a partial OBU scholarship; to which we were very proud of.
The ‘herky’ was one of my favorite jumps, but Jackie’s best was her toe-touch. Holy cow!, could that girl jump and do a ‘better than a textbook’ toe-touch. I still also recall the many 100’s, perhaps 1,000’s of inverted sit ups that she would do while having her legs anchored around my waist to give her the support she needed. It was embarrassing how many of those she used to be able to knock out ~ nearly breathlessly . . .
My boogie was/is a snuggler. I loved the memories from all the early childhood years that we’d lay in bed reading, talking, or just snuggling till she fell asleep, and she never fell asleep easily. It was boogie’s owie hour, or mama, “please pray for ________, he’s not very smart.”
Jackie was an early walker (7 months old, like her Mom), she was an early talker (full conversations by 2 years old, just like her Mom), she was a social butterfly (like her Mom), but, she loved math (like me), loves to read (like me), and most importantly; completely enjoys roller coasters (like me).
She previously loved to be tickled (as does now her son O’Mike), and she loved to be thrown up into the air as a young child as often as my arms would allow. She had no idea what ‘one more time’ really meant.
Jackie was born bald. Our bald-eagle. Nary a hair until she was 3, just like her Mom, and now it is all blond, just like her Mom too. She was so super skinny that she was called stick-people legs. Jackie’s got the Fournier peanut-head, but she is a splitting image of her Mom, often referred to at times as Mom’s mini-me. It is astonishing to see pictures of Jackie now, and compare to what Nini used to look like. It is spooky the resemblance. Even today, there is no mistaking it. But of course, because Nini is so attractive, she is often thought to be Jackie’s older sister, and not her Mom . . . J
Jackie is my ram-rod, my ram-jack, my go-go-gackie; my type A driver. She is focused, intense, direct; and all in a good way. She is raising my two grandsons in the only way she should, and that is with the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Jackie was/is a tirelessly hard worker. I cannot remember how many times was she out in the yard with me over the years for 6-10 hours a day helping me do weekend yard work, sweep, edge, push the mower, dissolve the miracle-gro, pull the weeds, empty the yard bags, rake, mulch; whatever it took, she was right there by my side. She would never quit early. If I was working, she was too. It still shows today in her work ethic at home.
She’s my new words-with-friends gamer, and proves to be a consistent and formidable challenge; I still wish I could layer words the way she does.
Jackie loves to cook from a box or a bag, and rarely does she stray from that formula. The few times that she has though, we’ve all ‘cheered her on’ to just stick with the box and bag versions. Go-go-gackie, you can do it, yes you can, take that shovel, take that pan, bake that flour, yes you can, Gooooooo Jackie! (She could use a few more cooking lessons though; as that’s about the only thing she could improve on!)
I love you Jacqueline Renee! Happy 33rd Birthday. - Dad
