Thanksgiving and the Second Amendment!

We got four days at home together!

That's me practicing my second amendment right. This is my new Ruger 10/22 with extended clip. My dad was a Marine and taught me how to shoot his 22. I've been teaching Kayla like he taught me. Her gun is a custom .22 with large bore barrel, carved thumb hold and scope. She's very accurate. She can hit a can top from a hundred yards!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend home as a family! We hiked, ate a bunch of turkey and spent quality time together.

This is called, "across the street from Dinosaur Hill." It's my favorite place to walk the dogs off lead.

At the end of one the trails is a rock with a depression I called a bird bath but the girls said it was a nest. My dumbdumbdaddyo-birds.

Suzy and Chloe ran the Grand Junction Turkey Trot 5K!

They did awesome and started a new family tradition.

This picture of Suzy and Chloe says it all. Sometimes staying home is the best way to go!

Best Thanksgiving Ever.

1952 Sugar Bowl Champions Game Ball

University of Maryland

1952

Sugar Bowl Champions

In the 1952 Sugar Bowl my dad was a Senior playing for the Maryland Terrapins. They were undefeated and ranked 3rd in the nation and got to play #1 ranked Tennessee. The Terps won 28 to 13. It was my dad's last game. Wikipedia called my Dad an anchor of the defense but he did play both ways and long snapped. This was confirmed because he signed the ball twice with the offense and defensive teams.



I have the football sitting here next to the laptop as I am posting about it and Mary my 4 year old pointed out that the ball on my desk was also on my laptop and she asked if she could hold it. I told he it was her grandfather's football and showed her were he'd signed it. I traced his familiar signature with my finger Jefferson D. Keith. Her face lit up and she said his name Keith tooo! I said yea he was my father and that's why we are named Keith! That autograph of his never changed during his entire adult life.

I just drove my mom from Denver to Phoenix in her car. My brother had driven her from MO to Denver and I was to finish the last leg of her move with my sister. We got to stop in Fruita for a day and visit with the family. We went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant Enzo's and had a great Veteran's Day assembly at the girls school.

When we got to Phoenix my sister Carol asked if I wanted dad's football from the Sugar Bowl and of course I said yes! In the Phoenix airport I took those pictures and carried it loose on the plain. Several people asked about it and one guy said I need to put that in a museum or something! During the drive we talked about a lot but after a couple of hours my listening skills are fried and my mom continues to talk for fifteen straight hours. I'm still trying to short out all she shared but for know I will settle with not having been driven crazy the whole time. One thing I remember was her saying,  "Jeff, your father, tried very hard with you boys because his dad was a real SOB. His dad was mean, really mean, and a drinker. So when it came to being a father he just did what he always wanted his father to do and never did, like show affection and set a good example.

Seeing the McWilliams reunited in Phoenix was a good thing. I plan to go back to AZ with my girls after Christmas for a little family reunion with J and T and E and the McWilliams posse.

1964

I was using my brother's guest room and saw a scrap book of my dad's association career and in the back was a large envelope of all the letters of congratulations for being appointed Chairman of the Board at ASAE (American Society of Association Executives. Also in the envelope was this 1964 Passport! I had never seen this picture. Two years before I was born this is what my father looked like. My dad at 37 ten years younger than I am now. My wife is 37. She said he looks a lot older than she does. I think he looks a lot older than I do. I guess it is hard to see youself as old as you really are.

The first thought that went through my mind when I saw this was that in the Sixties my dad was a member of Men in Black. For what I know of him during that time it may be true. A couple of times he had mentioned he had worked for the CIA but gave it up for Law School. Between 1964 and 1967 he traveled extensicely in Europe, Berlin, France, London, Nederland, Drewitz. Who knows that man could keep a secret.