Birthdays

Yesterday was my birthday.  I’m 69 years old.  I know everyone says this, but I really and truly never dreamed I’d live this long. But, here I am. 

I never really got into birthdays. I never liked birthday parties, even as a child.  I hate birthday cake. When I was a kid, almost everyone’s mother smoked, mine included.  We had homemade birthday cakes then and they all tasted like an old ashtray! Now everyone buys birthday cakes. Store-bought birthday cake is one of the nastiest foods ever invented. The icing is nothing but shortening and powdered sugar.  It’s so sickening sweet it sets my teeth on edge. My ex couldn’t understand that I didn’t like it and always got me one anyway so she could eat it, because birthday cake is her very favorite food.  I would ask her to make me a pound cake or some other cake that I liked but she insisted that it had to be birthday cake. My sister made me a lemon icebox pie yesterday and I much preferred it to a cake.  

Like Christmas decorations (see my earlier post about that), my ex soured me on birthdays.  She wanted a month long celebration.  She didn’t want just a cake.  She wanted multiple cakes.  One for home, one to take to work, one to take to her mother’s, and sometime another, just because. There had to be a party. The whole thing was disgusting.  

I’ve reached the age and stage where birthdays are just another day.  I’m glad I made it another year but I don’t need or want a big celebration.  Yesterday I went to church and had lunch with my sister.  Later, Susan and I met some friends for a drink then went out for a burger.  That was fine with me.  It was plenty. My younger son had to work all weekend so tonight he is meeting me for pizza. The best part of my birthday was a text from my grandson wishing me a happy birthday.  

But I have enjoyed a couple of things!  I really enjoy and appreciate all the birthday greetings and wishes from my friends on social media.  Some I don’t hear from very often. That means a lot to know that all those people care enough to wish me a happy birthday. And all the birthday freebies are great!  My burger last night was free!  A free waffle at Waffle House this morning!  Free BBQ sandwich for lunch!  I’m all about free food!  

Next year is a different story.  If I’m still here, I’ll hit the big 7-0! The biblical “three score and ten!” I told my oldest son that I expect a huge celebration with adulation, congratulations, and lots of guests, food, drink, and music! I’ll let you all know when the party is!  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Angel

 No, not like the angels I wrote about earlier.  This is much different.  I’ll explain in a minute.  And I promise this will be the last post on this subject, but I need to write this for my own peace of mind. This is about the Angel of Death.   I’ve known Robert since we were 3 years old, almost 67 years.  We were two months apart in age. We grew up together, went all through school together, and even though we traveled different paths after high school, we remained friends and stayed in touch.  I stayed in Utica while he got a job in Saudi Arabia and lived there for nearly 30 years.  But no matter where in the world he was, he didn’t forget his old friend. He stayed in touch and would see me when he was back in the States. After he retired, he and his wife settled in the Orlando area in Florida    I hadn’t heard from him in a couple of months, and I thought that was strange.  We usually email, text, or talk once a month or so. The...
Read more

Christmas

 Today is Christmas.  Families everywhere are gathering to celebrate, exchange gifts, and eat themselves into a food coma!  I’ve had a nice Christmas, quiet and low key, but nice.  A far cry from Christmases past.   When I was a kid, we had to go to both sets of grandparents. We’d get up early, my sister and I would see what Santa brought, and open our gifts from each other.  Then we’d load up the car and go to my mother’s folks.  All the aunts and uncles and cousins were there.  We’d eat a huge lunch and open gifts.  Then we’d load up again and go home for a few minutes and go to my father’s folks.   Same scenario there.  Aunts, uncles, and cousins, except this side had more of each. Another huge meal and we’d head home.  By this time, we were so tired we didn’t want to play with our new toys, all we wanted to do was go to bed! After I got married, it got more hectic.  We had to go to my mother in law’s for Christmas with...
Read more

The Greatest Gift

 At my cousin Roy’s funeral a few weeks ago, I was talking with one of his co-workers and he said something about how Roy could fix anything.  He was amazed. “Like how did he know all this stuff?”  I explained that it was almost a way of life in our family.  I mentioned in my earlier post about the tractor shed, how my father taught me so many things.  Roy’s dad, my Uncle Jerry was the same way.  It was a great gift.   Uncle Jerry was an appliance dealer. He sold and repaired Whirlpool appliances for over 50 years. Naturally, all our appliances came from him.  But, like Daddy, he expected me to fix things myself whenever I had a problem.  He would sell me the part and talk me through the repair over the phone and if I still couldn’t fix it, then I could bring it in or he’d send one of his guys to check it out.  But he was teaching me how to do things for myself. I tell people all the time that the greatest gift my father gave me was to t...
Read more