My Father's 110th Birthday!

Today my father Nelson Hoyt would have been 110 years old if he were still alive today.  That's no kid.  He passed away back in 1983 at the age of 74. He and my mother Mary moved to Stuart, Florida back in 1976, and they both loved it there.  It was a shame he passed away at what today is considered a relatively early age, but at least he had 7 years of retirement from being a dentist in Chicago, a job he truly hated.  My sister Susan and I would often visit them down in Florida, and sometimes take mini-vacations to various destinations.  The photograph on the left shows my father posing in front of the gates of Boone Hall, a plantation just outside of Charleston, South Carolina.  We often visited both Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina , since Savannah was only 6 hours or so away from Stuart, and Charleston was not too much further. They are, by the way,  two of the most beautiful and historical cities in the country.

We also visited Key West.  I took the photograph on the right of my father at the Hemingway House, where Hemingway lived and wrote from about 1930 to 1940. Not only did we get to take a cruise around the harbor, but also arrived back in time to applaud the sunset at the Mallory Street Dock.  As I recall, the next day the skies looked threatening, and so my father insisted on heading back to Stuart.  He considered that place the equivalent of Camelot, and hated being away from it, and so I suspect the threatening skies were just an excuse. But no matter.  It was nice just all being together, wherever we were.  Happy Birthday Dad!