Happy Father's Day Dad!! I guess it has been put to me to present your gift. You could say that this gift started about 45 years ago when you and your friends worked at a mule camp. You could also say that this gift started about 30 years ago when you showed the shirt from that camp to me. I liked it and wanted one myself. You could also say that this gift started 5 years ago when I had to sneak the shirt over to Kinkos to get a good digital scan of it. Then again, you could say that this gift started about 2 months ago when I finally had the tools and know-how to reproduce the shirt.

I know that the original of this shirt has special meaning to you. When you were in college you were hired to run a mule camp. I love hearing you tell the story of how you and your friends would take children from the LA area into the mountains on mules for three day camp excursions. The kids earned the camp by selling a certain number of newspapers. This camp experience seems to have been a high point in your life and we wanted to help you celebrate it again by reissuing the camp T-shirt.

A few months back, I emailed Patty, David, and Mom asking them if they thought this would be a good gift. They all agreed it would be excellent (mom thinks it will make you cry). Patty and David have both contributed to the printing of the shirts. Each of your children and grand-children now have copies of the shirt. We also had a few extra printed so you could use them as you see fit. Perhaps as some of the younger ones will grow out of theirs and they may need a new one. It doesn't matter. It is totally up to you how you distribute the shirts.

We love you dad and thank you for telling us so many good stories of your youth and the many adventures you've had in your life. We wish you many more adventures so you can tell many more stories.

P.S. Any errors in this blog are due to my faulty memory but I hope the spirit of the story stands. I will be happy to fix any errors.