The year Frank Ray Hommel was born, the cost of gasoline was 10 cents a gallon. While they rarely needed to purchase a loaf of bread, that cost 8 cents in 1931. A dozen eggs were 18 cents. At the time, his mom and dad initially lived with their parents on a Franklin farm and raised their own chickens and ate homemade bread. Frank was the eldest of eleven siblings.
My guitar-strumming, piano-playing vocalist of a father celebrated his 89th birthday last Wednesday. That is 779,640 hours of living to the fullest!
I contemplated all the inventions he witnessed after entering the world on Jan. 22, 1931:
Frank was 3 when the game Monopoly and the first tape recorder was invented.
He was 7 when the ballpoint pen, strobe lighting and freeze-dried coffee came to be.
Frank was almost 9 when the first successful helicopter, jeep and color TV were developed.
He was 16 years-old in 1947 when mobile phones were first invented — although cell phones were not commercially sold until the 1980s. Dad didn’t feel the need for a cell phone until he was given one for Christmas 10 years ago.
When I asked my father what invention he was most grateful for, he answered, “Probably electric lights.”
“My first couple of years in school (this was in 1937-1938) I had to study at home with an oil-type lamp. Schools like Union (in Johnson County) had electricity, but the country homes weren’t all hooked up until a few years later,” he said.
A legacy that he continues to model throughout the Hommel family has been to work hard but incorporate fun and play into his life. Whether it is basketball, softball, table tennis, throwing horseshoes, or playing music and telling stories — he models joy.
“When it came to sports, I have always enjoyed the competition and camaraderie with my teammates. It is the same with music — I delight in playing with other musicians whether for weddings, dances or just entertaining,” he said.
Last weekend before spending the day with Betty, his wife of nearing 65 years, he was invited to try a new sport at the Tap and Axe in Old Town Greenwood. He celebrated his birthday early with daughter Jerri and grandson Nick by throwing axes and tomahawks into a wooden bullseye. Jerri bragged, “Dad was awesome — he just has naturally great hand/eye coordination!”
King Solomon wrote these words in his later years, which are recorded in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes: “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God…”
