Today is Pop's Birthday

November 12th ... that was Dad's birthday. Pop's birthday.

Dad (to Gus, Betsy, Jim, Clellie) was Frank R. Philpott. He seldom told anyone his middle name. Because our middle names are not the same, I'm not a "Jr." 

Pop was born November 12, 1900 in Clifton Forge, Va., and he died in May 1962 in University City, Mo.

This photo may have been taken in about 1955-56. He was in the insurance business, as both a salesman and a manager. In the mid-1950s he was self-employed broker and had an old rolltop desk at home, where lots of papers made their way into the pigeon holes and drawers. Remember, those were the days before computers. Sure wish I'd kept that Underwood typewriter.

He taught me to ride horses, and he himself rode in the Black Horse Troop of the Shrine in St. Louis. El Jebel, as I recall.

Mom and Dad had a farm in Chesterfield. Well, we called it the "farm". It was 60 acres of hills. 

Growing up I knew there was one business that I was not going to end up in. The insurance business. And so what happened? In 1965 I became an agent of The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, in one of the five downtown agencies in Chicago. That was the start of my business life.

Years later, and after I had changed jobs several times, I was having dinner with a group at The Fort in Morrison, Colorado. I was telling a colleague about how my dad used to hunt quail on horseback. George asked how those little quail could ride horseback, making a sign with his fingers like a quail hanging onto the horse's back. I told him that, until that night, I had never realized what a good shot my dad had been. Never once did Dad hit the horse!

Because Mom died when I was 21 and Dad died when I was 23, I missed the growing-up-with-aging-parents adventure. 

What was Dad's middle name and why wouldn't he tell anyone? OK, here's the secret. He was Frank Roosevelt Philpott. He stopped telling people his middle name because they'd ask, "Aftet FDR?"

Of course not, since Dad was born in 1900. He was named after Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919), the Rough Rider, who became U.S. President (1901-1909).

Today is also my granddaughter's birthday. Abbie Bowman is 23 today. She was graduated from Johns Hopkins University this year and is in the process of choosing a medical school. Go, Abbie!!!