One of my numerous calenders for the new year is "This Day in History."
Today's item reminded me of my dad, who, among other things was a gifted singer with an impeccable ear for music; he taught himself to play the trumpet, (Coronet).  He was a regular in the local minstrel shows and musicals.  Growing up in my house was like living with Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett.  Which is why today many of my favorite songs were first heard when sung by dad.  Dean Martin was and is the singer I try to emulate when ever I belt out a song, which is quite often.

In 1928 my dad was 8 years old.  That was the year on this day, the 11th of January,that Bing Crosby recorded "Ol' Man River."

Bing Crosby, one of the most celebrated crooners of all time, recorded the hit song "Ol' Man River" from the musical Showboat with Paul Whiteman and his orchestra .

I have a record in my collection of my father singing "Ol' Man River."  Dad was probably in his late twenties or early thirties then.

Personally I think he did a better job than Bing. ;)

Last night while talking on the phone with my wife she asked if I was going to write a new blog post for today. I said that I hadn't thought of anything yet to write about so , "not sure."

Now it's approaching the time for me to leave for the surgery center and I just a few moments ago thought of something to post about.

Earlier when I first got up and looked at my calender, you know, the one with 10 things to be happy about listed everyday, I noticed first of all the date: 17 Feb. My dad was born on this date in 1920. He'd be 90 today if he hadn't left us in 1978. Happy birthday dad; I still listening!

The second thing I noticed was the list and number two on the list was ; WASHING THE DISHES BY HAND. I thought, "yup, I like to do that." Then I moved on to checking my e-mail, facebook and blogger. Let me say here a big thank you to Willow for starting up the Magpie Tales blog. It prompted me back to the writing table and, not that it matters, I had more commenters on my post than I've had in a year or more.

Now that I'm late leaving for work let me say, after hand washing my breakfast dishes: Washing dishes by hand is a calming meditative task that brings me pleasure!

No, no I said: do your own dishes! ;)