Happy 90th Birthday, Papa Jack!

Last night we celebrated Papa Jack's 90th birthday in style! 

Now, we'd all like to live to be 90 years old.  But it would be even sweeter to live to be 90 years old and be like Papa Jack.  The man still rides motorcycles.  He plays disc golf and runs the planetarium at the local university.  He's on Skype 3 hours a day with my stepdad.  He emails his Christmas cards every year.  He was on Facebook before I was. 

In short, he's super cool. 

Papa Jack was born May 2, 1921 in Baltimore, Maryland.  When he was 8, he moved to a farm in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, where he has lived the rest of his life, save college and the war years.  At last night's presentation we learned that as a young person he was very good at jumping over fences and other tall objects.  Apparently this picture was taken right after he jumped over a fence:

The sneakers of yesteryear were awesome.

Papa Jack worked as a science teacher and football/track coach, which is how he met a fellow teacher named Arlene who would end up being his wife.  They married in 1947 and had my stepdad a year later.  

Papa Jack is one of those people who has had like a zillion hobbies: disc golf, football, computers, astronomy, knitting, motorcycles, and building kit cars.  Oh, and he has two adorable cats.  He's just an all-around interesting guy.  

Here are some shots from his birthday party:

 This photo shows the general atmosphere of the room.  There were 112 guests.

 The cake.  In truth, this was just a small cake to serve as a "blow out the candles" cake.  The restaurant provided more cake for everybody else.

 My stepdad, World's Funniest Public Speaker, gave an informative, hilarious, and touching speech.  The lighting made it difficult to photograph him, so he's in the background of this shot where I look kind of confused and surprised.

 Papa Jack with Bill, uncooperative Nathan, and me.  He's holding a balloon that says "It's not the age, it's the attitude," which I think pretty much sums up Papa Jack.

 This is my mom and stepdad with Papa Jack, featuring the slide show with a motorcycle shot in the background.

During the clean-up, Nathan played with balloons.  It's like Up. 

Happy Birthday, Papa Jack!  We should all aspire to be like you!