Daddy always loved Christmas and he always brought in lots of apples, oranges, bananas, English walnuts, pecans and tangerines (my favorite).  When I smell a tangerine now, I think of him.  We lost him in 1985 but he remains in our hearts.

Daddy was a great hunter.  He loved to hunt deer, squirrel, quail, ducks and birds. We always had to eat all the meat and it helped out with a large family of seven children.  This was daddy's passion after GOD and his family.

In the early 1940's things were still pretty tight and most people did not have a lot of money.  Daddy always worked two or three jobs to provide.  Daddy wanted a certain kind of rifle and he saved and saved for it.  He ordered it from   Montgomery Ward for $100.00.  It was a beautiful gun with a scope and something to be treasured.

The next Christmas, things were very tight and my parents felt they could not provide as nice a Christmas as they wished for us so daddy sold his treasured rifle.  It was heartbreaking.  Daddy had saved for so long for this one special thing for himself and then had to sell it for us.  I don't remember what we got that Christmas  but I will never forget that gun and daddy's sacrifice.

As the years went on, daddy had several guns and continued to hunt until he lost his eyesight.  He still planned hunting trips that he would take as soon as the surgery worked on his eyes.  That never happened as he suffered a massive heart  attack after the last eye surgery.

I have many memories of daddy's devotion to his family but at Christmas time I always remember daddy and the rifle he loved so much. 
 

Merry Christmas
Joan Doyle Harmon