My Dad would have turned 84 today. This time last year we knew he did not have much more time. I still can’t quite believe he’s no longer with us. And I’m still finding comfort in every reminder of him.

An excerpt from one of my Grandfather John E. Lapp’s weekly family letters to his nine adult children and their families is a fitting tribute for Dad’s birthday. This was written in 1986, when Dad was 46 years old. Grandpa’s letters ranged from newsy to theological to goofy. Sometimes he wrote with great precision and other times with a more free-flowing style with little attention to grammar. When my brothers and I first came across this letter, we felt like we were reading our Dad’s voice, well-known for silliness and irreverence.

Here is the excerpt, with all of Grandpa’s accidental and intentional typos, run-on sentences, Pennsylvania Dutch lingo, and creative spellings included.

Monday 11:00 a.m. June 30, 1986. What a beautiful day for the last one of June.

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in all the earth!

Dear Ones:

Well, I guess I am beginning a good week! Was lying in bed at 8:30, heard the door-bell, but stayed lying, tho’t it would just go away, but the bell continued ringing and I didn’t feel like getting up, but rather felt like just going on relaxing, then the pounding on the door, calling all the neighbors out to see what was going on, so finally after twenty minutes of such carrying on I got up threw my bathrobe around me and went to the door to see what such carrying ons in my ultra quiet neighborhood meant anyway. So, what do you thing at the door I saw a nice little boy whom his mother and I had called SAMUEL JAY LAPP, and he wondered what it all meant that I didn’t answer the first ring of the door-bell as he always does. You all know this precocious little boy who runs his bycicly into a car, and then refuses to go to see a doctor, but his father quietly takes him.

Ya all know this little boy who used to enjoy eating ground because we didn’t feed him enough dirt at the table, at least so Dr. Paul M always said. You all know this little boy who used to tantalize his little brother and sisters. You all know this little boy who is always concerned about the underdog so much that he takes a bone out of reach of TEDDY and gives it to WINKY, then gets a bite taken out of his own hide as a result.

Ya all know him as the electrician who took a hold of the live wire while standing upon a ladder and wanted to let go but couldn’t so he gave the ladder a kick and fell to the floor that’s how he learned to let go. But he just couldn’t let go of that door bell button. You all know how he likes to drive my car out on the turnpike at 115 miles an hour, and could do this without even getting stopped by a cop and getting a $150.00 fining ticket he is a great guy. But he insisted that I get up early this morning. It was only eight thirty – that’s not even late enough for Grace H to look to see if my curtains are opened or for her to even call the office to tell them they better see what’s wrong with SCHOHN I don’t know now yet why he did it. Why Sara wouldn’t even stand there at the door and try to pound it down, she’d quickly pull out her keys and whalk in, wouldn’t you Sara….

Well that’s chust the way it is in this LAPP CLAN!

Thank you, Grandpa, for this glimpse into how you saw your middle child. You captured his essence. He was indeed nice, precocious, concerned about the underdog, and a risk-taker.

I agree with you, Grandpa. Samuel Jay Lapp was a great guy.