My Father's House

When they were first married, sometime in the mid-1940's, my grandparent's bought a little home in Mount Airy, NC. It was a simple log cabin. Over time, little by little they fixed it up. When I was a child it was a nice place to live. Very clean and tidy. A couple months ago it burned. The following are pictures from long ago and from my visit yesterday 12/08/07. (You can click on each individual picture to see a much bigger view.)

That's my mom on the far left. My brother John is sitting on her lap. I am second from the right in the white T-shirt with my mouth wide open. This picture was from 1974.

Here my brother and I are waking my dad on Christmas morning, 1974.

My brother John and I in bed pretending to be asleep on Christmas morning.

Daddy playing with yo-yo in the living room.

In the living room with brother John. Do we look excited? Yep!

My mom. That tree could almost qualify as a "Charlie Brown" model.

That's my grandpa Genoa with his handy/dandy pocket protector.

And this is the way the house looked yesterday.

...and the other side.

The backside of the house. My dad is in the lower right.

A shell of the same bedroom where my brother John and I woke my dad on Christmas morning so many years ago.

The Christmas tree was in front of this window where my mom stood with her blue suit, my brother and I looked so excited and my dad played with the yo-yo. Now-nothing but charred memories.

The front porch where I sat with my mom and neighborhood friends. Now-it's something from a nightmare!

My dad, wife-Laura and daughter- Lorien look at me through the remains of the house.

"Where would we be without hope in our hearts."

Who Was It?

Who was the guy in the picture with the grey suit?

It was my dad, Dennis Griffith, circa 1972.

D. W. Griffith, born in 1948 now lives at large, in the greater Mount Airy, NC area.

Some say he bears a striking likeness to the guy who played the father on the hit 90's TV show The Wonder Years. Do you see a resemblance?