Utah State University, located in Logan, Utah, is the home of the Utah State Aggies. My father, the first in my family to graduate from college, attended this fine institution of higher learning in the 1950s.
Next came my brother, who followed in my dad's large footsteps (he was a tall man...) and attended Utah State University in the 1980s. He graduated as well, but not as quickly as my dad who earned his four-year bachelor's degree in three years. Not an easy thing to do.
But my dad was an amazing man.
He graduated in Tool Engineering. It's my understanding this is no longer a degree offered at any university. Tool Engineering evolved into Mechanical Engineering--a tough field, lots of math.
Today I found a couple of my father's university yearbooks. I guess they did that back then. They had pictures of him and others in his program. The pictures are how I remember him, tall, little hair. Of course, no kids remember their dads when their dads were in their twenties, unless they had use of a time machine and could go back and see your father in his younger years.
Most kids have the opportunity to see their father age, to see him grow old, see his hair turn gray, hear him tell about what life was like when he was your age, to worry about him when he forgets things, to wonder if it's time to talk to him about him driving not so much. Kids get to see the circle of life through their fathers. It helps the kids better understand and appreciate what it means to be a father to their own children.
The pictures in the yearbooks reminded me of how I remember my dad. He died when I was eight years old, which means he passed away sixteen or so years after these pictures were taken. Though my dad wasn't around to teach me and council me and spoil my kids, his grandkids. Instead, I've come to glean his wisdom, his work ethic, the way he was--and would have been--a dad through his example. And a better example I personally don't know.
Today, the Utah State University men's basketball team secured a birth in the NCAA basketball tournament, more likely the only local team to do so. It reminded me of my college days. After I graduated from Davis High School (and yes, I sang that I would have fought for it...), I attended USU. I followed in my father's footsteps, walked the much bigger campus where he walked, lived in housing that existed long before either of us were Aggies. My dad stayed for three years; I stayed three months and never returned. Harry Taylor, Aggie alum, great dad.
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