Now birthdays don't really excite me. If I was on my own, I would probably miss my birthday. Birthdays don't get me bent out of shape for various reasons. I have no angst about growing old or oncoming poorer quality of life. My Mom died at age 59. I was worried if I would outlive her. Now I see how young she was when she died. I don't want to outlive my Dad who died at age 95.
Now I realize that most other people are quite concerned about their birthday. It's a big deal! I only forgot my wife's birthday once! But I think it was ingrained on my mind from school as to how important birthdays were. We read the birthdays over the intercom each day. Once in a while some little kid's birthday was missed so I had a very sad and worried little kid coming and telling me that their birthday was missed. They knew that I would go to the office and make sure that the error was corrected. I also said happy birthday to the kid each time I saw him or her that day. I'll never forget the look in those eyes when their birthday was forgotten. It was like they'd received a message that they didn't exist.
Now before I turned 72 my brother was also 71. When I turned 72 he stayed at 71. So what's the deal? My brother was born less than a year after I as born? We have always enjoyed this situation. When we were little guys somebody always asked us how old we were . I would say 8 and he would say 8. Then the person would say , "Oh you're twins' and we would say "no." It would leave the person scratching their head. I often think back to the time when we were born and wonder how busy our Mom was. It got worse because 14 months later we had a baby sister. So a two year old was looking after one year old. Very likely neither of us were potty trained. So a one year old and two year old were sleeping in a double bed.
So I am very happy to have turned 72 . You can see the standard muffin and one candle. I got a web cam for my birthday. My wife took me out for dinner and then we went to a hockey game. Times are good.
Well Happy Birthday (belated) anyway Red! I must say that you look pretty good at 72. We're not big into celebrating birthday's here either.
ReplyDeleteA belated Happy Birthday to you, Red. Wishing you a great year and many, many more to come.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting that you and your brother were less than a year apart. I knew a woman whose two daughters were born in January and November of the same year. Every time she tried to register them for something (school, doctor appointments, census stats.. etc) they were interrupted and told that they had made a mistake with one of the kids' year of birth. The couldn't wrap their minds around both being in the same calendar year.
happy birthday.
ReplyDeleteWhat a muffin? Where is the champagne and caviar?
e-mail following.
Colin
Happy belated birthday, Red. Seventy-two? You look GREAT and I do hope you enjoyed your birthday muffin. I can't help but think how hard those years had to be when you and your brother were little. Hard for your mother, that is...
ReplyDeleteThanks everybody for the birthday greetings.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how each of you worked with the piece and found your own interests.I liked the muffin comments. I think the older we get the less we consider birthdays unless it's the very elderly. I wrote a post on our early family life a while ago. I'll put a link in.
Once again your birthday wishes are appreciated.
happy birthday Red!
ReplyDeleteI believe you are right about how important birthdays are to children and how they become less important to celebrate as time wears on. I do like the idea of a birthday muffin though, what flavour was it? Hugs!
Tess, I think when we get older we begin to think about our past life and worry about our future.
ReplyDeleteIt was a high class muffin...banana mix!!!
Happy Birthday to you! Muffins are a much better idea than cake. I have granddaughters than were born 354 days apart. Their Mom and their Grandma were awfully busy back then..they are now 15, 13, and 12..and are so much fun:)
ReplyDeleteThanks Far Side. I think we were a bit too much fun! We were very active and I think got into lots of mischief.
ReplyDeleteHi Ya Red - Happy Belated Birthday - Your muffin photo had a questionmark there, so couldn't view it, also the first photo?? I love Birthdays. We go out for long walk, then pizza, then long walk. ha,ha
ReplyDelete