Today is my father’s birthday. He was born in 1933 and is 77 years YOUNG. Here are a few things that happened on his birthday in history:
1778 Captain Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands
1803 Jefferson requests funds for Lewis and Clark
1865 Battle of Ft. Moultrie, South Carolina
1882 A.A. Milne is born (he wrote Winnie the Pooh)
1930
-27 degrees in Watts, Oklahoma (state record)
1933 White Sands Monument, New Mexico established
1962 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1975 Jeffersons spinoff from "All in the Family" premieres on CBS
1974 Six Million Dollar Man starring Lee Majors premieres on ABC TV
1976 Superbowl X: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Dallas Cowboys, 21-17
1996 Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson in New York
(just a few interesting things)
My dad shares his birthday with:
Kevin Costner, actor
John Hughes, director
Danny Kaye, actor
Cary Grant, actor
A. A. Milne, author
Thomas A. Watson, inventor assistant to Graham Bell
Peter Roget, thesaurus fame/inventor, slide rule, pocket chessboard
and many more.
It’s fun to look back and see what occurred on your birthday in history. But the most important event that occurred on January 18th in 1933 was the birth of my father.
He was born to William “Red” and Hilma Blanton. Such wonderful grandparents! To my knowledge (which fails me at times), he was born and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. He married my mother in November of 1954. He was in the navy and stationed in California for several years. They have lived in Alabama, Florida, North Carolina and Georgia. He has worked in a funeral home and in sales. He has driven many a teenager on a church bus, grilled THOUSANDS of ribs, built dog pens/houses, added on a room addition to our house, taught his children how to use tools, helped in the birthing process of 13 German Shepherd puppies, watched hours and hours of John Wayne movies, gone on many a cold morning deer hunt, shot a few deer, eaten thousands of cakes and pies baked by my mother, has probably hugged tens of thousands of folks over the years, been married and devoted to the same woman for 55 years (whom he still adores), is the father of three, grandfather of six girls and great-grandfather of five, is a deacon, Sunday School teacher and a Man of God.
The above paragraph is just a miniscule listing of facts about my father. He is a kind and generous man with a loving spirit. His love comes unconditionally and unselfishly. He has always been faithful to me, teaching me the difference between right and wrong, encouraging me to be strong. Through struggle and strife he has always been there. His smile and the twinkle in his eyes melt my heart. His love, affection and adorning for my mother is heart-warming, breath-taking and beautiful.
There is a song by Paul Simon called Father and Daughter. The words in the chorus say:
I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father
That loved his daughter more than I love you.
Daddy, as long as one and one are two, there could never be a daughter that loves her father more than I love you. 
