A man of his word.

Sixty-one years ago today Hope and Bill Quinlan welcomed yet another child into the world, Joseph William Quinlan. As Bill said to Joe years later, while he was showing off his first born, “Yeah, I was pretty excited about my first couple too.”

My dad was more of the giving than receiving type, so birthdays weren’t much of his thing. We always got cake and ice cream of some sort and all you can eat fish with a side of cigarette ash at Jack’s.

When he got to the 55 year mark, my dad threw a bash, not to celebrate another year older, but that it was the last year he ever had to work. With jealousy my mom pouted, “I won’t ever get to retire because I was at home taking care of the kids.” I can imagine my dad’s grin as he said, “Don’t worry, I’ll break you free.”

That he did. We sold the canoe livery and he set up my mom to retire at 56, but with my dad being sick, she wasn’t sure she would be able. Then Granholm offered her an incentive package and she decided to run with it.

She got her first check from the government today,

my dad’s birthday.