I found this while going through a box of old photographs from my Dad’s apartment. He recently moved from his retirement home to a Nursing Home.
It’s a handmade card that I gave him in the early 1960s. Drawn on cardboard, based on one of his favorite comic strips, B.C., by Johnny Hart. I found it touching that he kept it tucked away for all these decades. It also gave me a bit more understanding of why I still have all sorts of little gifts that my sons, Spencer and Hudson made for me over the years.
I have a small round cardboard box with little seashells glued to the top in my desk drawer. I use it to hold paper clips. In our bathroom there’s an assorted collection of crude little sculptures and bowls crafted in art class and fired in kilns, not to mention the handmade Christmas tree ornaments that appear from dusty boxes dragged out of the attic every year.
Hopefully, when the boys are cleaning out my house they’ll stumble upon these tiny hidden treasures that they had forgotten about, and have the same warm wash of happy memories that I experienced when I found this old memento drawn on a scrap of shirt cardboard.
Those small gifts from sons to fathers got me thinking about the circle of life and the ultimate gift. If you’re unsure what that gift is, maybe Johnny Hart’s comic strip below can clear things up for you.
No wonder B.C. was one of Dad’s favorites.
