Not only do I love the people in the picture (my dad and his dad), I mean, just look at Grandpa's smile. He is content. I love it. Dearly.
This was taken July 4th, 1969 so my dad was married and really getting into responsibilities of life. He probably had one or two kids (my family members can verify) thus his more somber expression (I also learn he never really had a tendency to smile in pictures).
Later, while jogging, I figured out that my oldest brother was born in 1969, July of 1969 in fact. So, my dad's serious expression might be due to the fact that his wife was ready to pop down below. He must have been worrying about her :-).
Ha ha -- do you like how I am putting my own spin on it? I will have to ask my dad about this picture, but in the meantime it is his boots that made me smile. He's wearing those big work boots. Those boots will be a part of my dad's legacy for sure. He always wears those type of boots to do his outside work: gardening, mowing, pipe-moving. Those are the big boots that showed me how to plant corn and potatoes (don't "cut and cover"). Those are the boots that I pictured stomping a hole through our living room floor when the Boston Red Sox lost a game, and finally those are the boots that I would see my dad lace up, all the way to the top to go on motorcycle rides or hunting.
And Grandpa Fuller can just keep smiling - he probably wore the same thing :-).
Another editor's update - my oldest brother was born before 1969, it was my second oldest brother who was born in 1969, and his birthday is August, so my mom was hugely pregnant and wrangling a toddler down below.
