"Diamond Jim"

 

So today would have been the 105th birthday of my dad, James Alvin Arnott.

Or Diamond Jim as he liked to call himself. 

Here is a portrait of him painted by a pal in 1939. 

He was 19. And looking good. The world and his whole life waiting in front of him. 

He didn't even know he would have an amazing son several years later!  A son who was so fortunate to have him as his father.

He also called himself Ace Arnott of the Wetaskiwin Wildcats.

I thought he made that team name up until I was driving from Calgary to Edmonton and passed the town of Wetaskiwin. Holy cow, it really exists.

Now whether he was really the ace of that team....

Years later, after the war - where he flew convoy escort over the Mediterranean for the RAF - he gave himself another name - Tiger Jim. His pilot's helmet of course had tiger stripes.

So Dad, you were gone far too soon, but happy 105th.