Happy Birthday, Dad!

In Australia today my Dad, Gordon James Bayly, celebrates his 76th birthday! Happy Birthday, Dad!

I find that one of the hardest aspects of living away from family and friends in Australia is that I don't get to celebrate with them special events like birthdays, anniversaries, and graduations. You'd think that after living in the U.S. for almost 20 years, I'd be used to this by now. But, in all honesty, I don't think I'll ever get used to it, which I guess says something about my Australian family and friends and the love we share.

The photo above was taken in Sydney last May, which was when I last saw my parents. (For more images and commentary on this particular visit back to Australia, see here, here, and here).

I've shared images of my Dad through the years in a number of previous birthday posts (see for example, here, here, and here.) Here are a few more pics from the Bayly family archives . . .

Above: At Swallows' Ledge, Port Macquarie, Australia, with (from left) Aunty Fay, Mum, my niece Layne, and Dad – December 2009.

Above: Mum and Dad during their July 2005 visit to the Twin Cities.

Above: With my parents and elder brother Chris and his family in London – August 2005. From left: Chris, Cathie, Brenden, Ryan, Mitch, Mum, Liam, Dad, and me.

For more images and commentary on my visit with my parents to Europe in the summer of 2005, click here.

Above: Mum and Dad with my younger brother Tim and his family in Queanbeyan, Australia – March 2003. From left: Layne, Dad, Ros, Mum, Sami, and Tim.

Above: Sitting next to Mum with Dad and my elder brother Chris behind us – Christmas 1998 in Australia. The work tie Dad's wearing reminds me that at this time he was still two years from retiring from work in our hometown of Gunnedah. (See here, here, and here.)

Above: Dad and my younger brother Tim, partnered up for a game of table tennis – Christmas 1986.

Above: Mum and Dad at my 21st birthday party in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia – October 1986.

As you can see, my 21st party had a Prince Valiant theme! And I have my Dad to thank for introducing me to the heroic Prince of Thule and to what is undoubtedly the greatest work ever produced in the adventure strip medium.

For more images of my 21st, click here.

For my 2010 interview with my Dad about Prince Valiant, see this post on my blog A Prince Named Valiant.

Above: Mum and Dad and my younger brother Tim with the Dignam family. Although I know this photo was taken in Gunnedah, I'm not exactly sure when it was taken. I'm thinking, though, that it was probably some time around 1980.

Above: Dad pictured during one of our family holidays at Coffs Harbour in the late-1970s.

Above: Dad holding me as an infant. This photo was probably taken during a family holiday at The Entrance in the Australian summer of 1966/67.

Above: My parents on their wedding day – November 7, 1959.

Above: Dad (left), pictured in the mid-1950s with his good friend John Sills. John and his wife Heather married shortly after my parents and raised their family next door to us in Gunnedah.

Above: Dad as a schoolboy in the 1940s.

Above: Dad as a young boy. He's pictured riding his tricycle at “Flodden,” Dad's mother’s family farm in the Purlewaugh district of northwestern New South Wales, Australia.


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Happy Birthday, Dad (2009)
Happy Birthday, Dad (2010)
Happy Birthday, Dad (2011)
Congratulations, Mum and Dad!
Commemorating My Grandfather, Aub Bayly, and the Loss of AHS Centaur