Daddy's 80th Birthday Fish Fry

My parents in 1955, one year after they married (left)

and 1996 (right). That's my sister in my mom's arms & I wasn't born yet. Don't they look spiffy?? I love these old pics.

My parents met at Bible College in Lakeland,FL. Both of them are FL natives, Mom from the Tampa area & Dad from Panama City. We are English on both sides of the family. Doesn't my dad look like an Englishman? He has red hair & fair, freckled skin & I got his coloring.

We had a wonderful 80th birthday celebration for my dad this weekend & enjoyed some long-overdue catching up with old friends from my dad's 27 years of pastoring in Marietta, GA. It truly was a special time of memories & laughs, celebrating my dad's big day. We don't always have big birthday parties, but it just seemed that an 80th birthday was quite a cause for rejoicing!

My dad is quite a man...as I'm sure many of you feel about your own fathers, mine is quite special to me, my rock & my hero. He really is a farmer at heart, but at the age of 23, he was saved & God called him into the ministry where he spent the next 40 years pastoring churches & ministering to people as only he can do. Daddy has a wonderful sense of humor & you will find yourself laughing at his stories & enjoying his story-telling style tremendously....he has a way with words & facial expressions to match. It was old home week, as several old members of his congregation & old friends of our family came to the birthday party & enjoyed a good old-fashioned Southern fish fry. Lunch was delicious & after we all finished eating, one of the ladies suggested that we should all take turns telling something memorable about my dad & the years he spent pastoring our church. These friends then spent the next few minutes telling personal stories of things that my dad had said & done that had touched them, made them laugh, or had an impact on their lives. That was such a fun time. We laughed & cried...and all left with a heart full of happiness that we could all get together again & celebrate the life of a wonderful man of God. He's been retired for about 15 years now, but people still miss his ministry. He does fill in teaching Sunday School now & then & everyone loves to hear him teach. I have a wonderful Christian heritage that I would not trade for all the money in the world. My

parents gave me & my sister a wonderful, strong & stable family upbringing that was built on Christ, the Solid Rock! We fried up speckled perch, homemade potato chips, & hush puppies that went along with cheese grits, baked beans & cole slaw. My brother-in-law also cooked some delicious chicken on the grill that was wonderful. We all got a good dose of grease that should last about a year or 2!
I made this delicious chocolate cake (and got the recipe (click link to go to the recipe) from another blogger, Amanda at Morning Glory Cottage). Amanda, it was great cake & everyone loved it! I added chopped pecans to mine & didn't do a layer cake, but put it in a baking pan. I'm all about cutting corners whenever possible, LOL.

When we got there on Friday afternoon, Mom fixed this wonderful fresh veggie meal & we gorged ourselves on that. My parents have a nice garden at their GA house & they also have a huge garden that's about an acre up at their house in NC. Dad is a happy man when he's on his tractor tending the garden. They go back & forth during the summer months from GA to NC & love spending time up there. My mom cans during the summer & so we all get to enjoy the bounty from their harvest. Mom is about the best Southern cook around. We had fresh green beans, squash, fried eggplant, sliced tomatoes & cucumbers, eggplant casserole, and creamy potatoes & dumplings. It just doesn't get any better than this! This is what I grew up eating & everyone who has ever sat down at my mom's table raves about her cooking. She doesn't cook quite as fattening as she used to, but she knows how to do it right!
Mom's hydrangea in bloom. She let me cut some nice full stems to bring home & dry. They are just gorgeous!
Me & dad on the back carport waiting for the fish to fry.
My niece, Lauren, will be 25 in August, but that doesn't stop her from sitting in my dad's lap every chance she gets. He eats it up! She's the only grandchild & is spoiled rotten, but in a good way. She's studying for the bar exam next week. Here's a link to my Mother's Day post, if you want to see pics of all the girls in my family. Poor dad is outnumbered with a wife, 2 daughters & one granddaughter!

Dad has several huge fig trees in the backyard of their home.
They live on 1/2 acre here in GA & about 1/3 of the backyard is garden space. He has been gardening for as long as I remember. When we were growing up, we hated having to work in the garden, digging up rocks, weeding, & picking vegetables. Oh, how I hated the bugs & how hot it was & got out of doing much of anything in that garden as often as possible. My sister and I definitely didn't appreciate it until we got older. Now, we love to share in it's bounty! We filled up bags of squash, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, & okra to bring back home with us.
Dad's muscadine vines in the backyard. He has always loved growing fruits too. They have some wonderful blueberries up in NC.
Lots of green tomatoes still on the vine. Luckily, they have started to get rain again, just in the nick of time to save his GA garden.
My farmer Daddy and my hubby, Peter, checking out the garden. You can see my Dad is tall, 6'5". I get my height & long legs from him, as well as my skin & hair coloring.

Thanks for wishing my Dad a Happy Birthday! I think he thoroughly enjoyed his day with friends & family. He loves for people to come & visit him at his house.

I will be posting some really neat things soon on my shop site, so please come by for a visit in the next couple of days. I made a trip to one of my favorite places to shop in Atlanta, House Parts, & found some great deals that I will share with you. I'll be posting those soon & I'll do a write-up about this fun place called House Parts. I know you are going to love these neat things!

Hope you're all having a great week!