The Happy Walker

My father turns 80 this year. He loves to tease, laugh, joke and spread joy to others. I remember  many times growing up sitting around listening to the “adults”- my dad with his parents, sister and some of his aunts and uncles – enjoying each other’s company. Sometimes the jokes would bring “gut chuckles” to everyone. You know the kind I mean; you laugh so hard tears pour out of your eyes, you can’t breathe and your ab muscles have never received this much of a work out!

He also likes to give "girl" names to boys, and vise versa, but that story can wait for another day.

Something my dad derives great pleasure from is giving children at church candy, more specifically, he hands out Tootsie Rolls. I teasingly call him the “candy man”. He gets to church early so that he can sit on the edge of the pew so he can see the children arrive. Sometimes he teases them by pulling a candy from behind their ear. Other times he hands a squirming or crying child a candy as they are being carried out of the chapel by one of their parents.

I have to be honest here and admit that I didn’t realize how many other flavors besides the original chocolate/cocoa existed: cherry, orange, vanilla, lemon and lime. Such a simple but happy gesture my dad shares with these children; some are a little picky about their tootsie rolls, however. My dad will reach in his suit pocket and pull out a handful of various types of this chewy candy. One little girl in particular will stand and wait for him to pull out the particular flavor that she wants. She will grudgingly accept an original when my dad hasn’t had time to stock up. The older children have taught their younger siblings to wait by my dad when they first enter church to receive this special treat. I don’t know how many parents are happy about this, but I know that this act of kindness cheers my dad up and makes the children a little happier.

My dad received a letter from the Public Relation’s Office from Tootsie Roll Industries thanking him for choosing such a sweet way to show kindness to little children. Along with the letter my father received a HUGE bag of Tootsie Rolls, which he happily displayed for the picture below. How did Tootsie Roll Industries know about this? My nephew Ammon wrote the company a letter about my dad. What a sweet and simple act of kindness my nephew did for his grandfather. It’s good to know that some of these “sweet” gestures have been passed on through the family.

My dad proudly displaying his giant bag of Tootsie Rolls given to him by the candy company.

Just for fun I browsed through the Tootsie Roll website:  Tootsie Roll recipes and found all kinds of recipes. Some of these look so scrumptious! It’s a good thing I was browsing on a full stomach or I may have had to make a mad dash to the grocery store to make one of these yummy looking recipes!