Remembering my Dad

I spent this morning thinking of my father.
How do you honor your heroes if there are a million of them?
So my focus this day was my dad, who served with other good men in WW II.
One of his favorite things to do for his five children was to make
animal shaped pancakes. Usually mom, or one of my sisters would make the bulk of the breakfast ( at least as I recall) and dad would do a "guest spot"
on the griddle. His creativity was as genuine as his love for us.
The cooking of cakes shaped like bears, turtles, fish, and who knows what
were his delight, as he showed off for us and irritated my mom.
For ten years or more I have enjoyed making shapes with the batter
and delighting the next generation with this tradition.
I am not sure that I gave credit for where it came from until today.
Dad died when I was twenty four, and left a huge hole in my world.
It is still there, but I think I poured some golden batter into it today.

Here is my tribute to Robert L. Schmidt Sr. a good man, a loving father
and a fine craftsman: He claimed his mom could flip pancakes with a knife,
but nobody put more love into breakfast than he did!