ohmidog!

Ace didn’t get to go to my son’s high school graduation, but we let him wear the cap for a while afterwards — stopping short of awarding him a dog-torate degree.

There were close to 300 seniors graduating from Florence High School in Alabama, and, being a Woestendiek, Joe’s turn to accept his diploma came pretty close to last. 

As hard as those bleacher seats had grown by then, it was a small price to pay for seeing the moment.

I only misted up once, when the seniors filed in, and my mind flashed back to the day 18 years ago when Joe, at 6 months of age, arrived from Korea at Los Angeles International Airport, whiny, tired and his full head of  jet black hair sprouting every which way, kind of like he’d stuck his finger in a wall socket. The hair eventually calmed down, and so did he.

And 18 human years whizzed by — too many of them spent too far apart.

His mom and stepdad are newly moved to New Albany, Mississippi, where Joe will spend the summer before going on to Rhodes College in Tennessee in the fall.

Ace and I plan to hang around here for a while, maybe taking a few day trips, and testing how long ex-wife hospitality lasts.

We checked out of the Knights Inn (where Ace got away with being 110 or so pounds over the weight limit) and made the two hour drive to New Albany this morning in a caravan of four cars – Joe’s mom, Joe’s grandparents, Joe, and Ace and me pulling up the rear.

This being ohmidog! and not ohmison!, it’s probably not the place to go on about how proud I am of my son … but I’m pretty darned proud of my son.

TV legend Art Linkletter died this week at 97.

A Canadian immigrant, Linkletter was an orphan, adopted by ”a one-legged preacher.” He left home at 17 and bummed around America as a hobo —”a great way to see this great country,” he noted.

He went on to become one of the most famous voices on radio in the 1930s, successfully making the transition to television in the 1950s. As Stephen Moore noted in this week’s Wall Street Journal, the most enduring of his hit TV shows was ”Kids Say the Darndest Things.”

One of Linkletter’s personal favorites was the comment of a 7-year-old boy whose dog had recently died.

“Don’t be sad because your dog is up in heaven with God,” Linkletter said, attempting to appease the youngster.

“Mr. Linkletter,” the boy responded, “what would God want with a dead dog?”