Kitty's father would have been 101 today. Kitty's family tends to be long-lived; you can't kill 'em with a stick. Bot it wasn't a stick but pancreatic cancer that hit Himself. That tough old man nearly beat it three times but too much was too much. Harold was an engineer, working on the space program among other things. His jobs often involved high clearance so Kitty and her brothers enjoyed making up stories about what he did.
They did not have to make up stories about his being in the Navy during World War II. Harold's Bronze Star spoke volumes. Harold Keane was easy-going, funny, courageous, patriotic, smart, and honest and principled. Perhaps it's a good thing that he died two decades ago. He would be aghast to learn that he shared a birthday with Donald Trump -- a man whose every fiber of his being went against anything Harold believed in. Harold had no truck with liars, cheats, haters, users, crooks, and narcissists. So in our house today we honor Harold and to hell with President Smallhands.
One of Harold's favorite meals was at Kimball's Ice Cream in Westford, Massachusetts, where the sundaes and splits were bigger than your head. Every year on this day we celebrate with ice cream for dinner in his honor. (Sadly, Kimball's doesn't offer bread pudding soaked in whiskey -- Harold's second favorite food -- so ice cream sundaes will do just fine for us.)
So, Happy Birthday to a wonderful man who, in addition to all the other great things he did in his life, gave us Kitty!
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