Happy Father's Day 2021

by Skip Cohen

​It's Sunday morning, and while I try to be off-track from my usual daily post topics of business, it's photography that's the hero of Father's Day 2021. Looking back to my own early days as a father, along with missing my own Dad, it's old photographs that bring back memories. Put old photos together with "neurochromes," images you captured when there wasn't a camera around, and it's non-stop smiles all day long.

So, the fun of this morning is telling stories about my Pop. When I was a kid, he was the one dad who would tie a rope to the car's bumper and let us hook up our sleds as he pulled us around the neighborhood. Today he'd be in jail for child endangerment, but life was different back then. He was the pop who drove us around one July 4th, tossing cherry bombs out the window under bridges, alleys, and the arcade in the shopping center just to see how loud we could make them.

He was also that dad who, when something hit him as truly funny, he'd laugh until he cried. From the Three Stooges to watching Bobo Brazil and the Gallagher Brothers on Saturday wrestling, there was no better buddy to hang out with.

But most important of all, he was my best buddy. He was my best man for my first marriage, and he was the one person in my family to support me when Sheila and I got married in 2010. I remember thanking him for keeping an open heart through my divorce and later my relationship with Sheila. His answer? "When you love somebody, an open heart is your only choice."

And that was my Dad. While I miss him all the time, it's those photographs and videos we've got that keep his memory more than just alive. So often, I'll say to Sheila, "I wish Dad could see this," and her answer is always the same, "He does!"

So to all you dads out there, Happy Father's Day. Don't compromise on making new memories and capture them with more than just neurochromes. Nothing beats looking at old photographs and the memories they bring back.

And nothing tops Jodi Picoult's quote, which I've shared a few dozen times over the years:

“This is what I like about photographs. They're proof that once,
even if just for a heartbeat, everything was perfect.”
Jodi Picoult

Wishing everybody a terrific Sunday, and time to savor your family, friends and those special moments that make life so worth living and remembering!

Happy Father's Day!