Birthday Parties

At the time my family consisted of five children and two parents. I believe that is a total of seven. Five of us celebrated birthdays within a two-week period. 

Mom decided that we should each have a birthday party at least once in our lives. Having five children meant five parties to plan. She sensibly chose one year for the boys and another year for the girls.

The first year was my brothers. They were the only two not born in the two weeks. The end of October and beginning of November meant that for eight days each year they were the same age. Irish twins. I actually just found out that the boys and I are Irish triplets.

One brother had a party in which there were two teams. Each team was given a list of items thar could be found around town. The team who collected the most items in the allotted time would win. I no longer remember what the prize was. 

Then there was cake and ice cream for all.

Two elaborate parties within eight days... Mom was exhausted.

The following year was for the girls and our three year old brother. 

My baby brother was easier. Toddlers are only interested in cake and ice cream.

My party was a treasure hunt. Mom had spent the previous day hiding clues all over town. Each clue was a riddle that told us where to find the next clue.

The final clue took us to the park where cake and ice cream was waiting for us.

As you can see Mom did not do things halfway. The first year she made spectacular parties for two boys in one week. The second year she had three parties in a week and a half. 

She was exhausted. She had not planned well. So many parties so close together. She said she would never do it again. We loved them.

Tooth Fairy

Who knew? 

As the oldest of seven children I lost my baby teeth first. The first one was loose for a long time. I rather enjoyed wiggling it with my tongue. Eventually it fell out. I tossed it in the trash.

The next one came out when I was eating a popcorn ball. I did not notice until much later. You know what that means. I had also swallowed my tooth.

Another tooth had come out without fanfare. I tossed it too.

Then my brother lost his first tooth. 

He came home from school with his tooth in his pocket. He asked Mom if he put the tooth under his pillow would the Tooth Fairy come. 

My ears perked up and my eyes opened wide. I had never heard of this Tooth Fairy. If my brother was right placing his tooth under his pillow would bring the Tooth Fairy. She would exchange the tooth for money. Who knew?

The next morning my brother triumphantly showed us the nickel left by the Tooth Fairy. It worked!

In the meantime I had lost three perfectly good teeth and had nothing to show for it. I WAS ROBBED!

My Heart

In 1992 Hurricane Andrew ravaged Florida. My brother one year younger than me lived in Lauderdale at the time.

He had not felt well that day and left work early. By the time he got home his chest hurt. He felt like he should go to the hospital. With the bad weather he decided to wait.

My brother knew that men in my family tended to have heart attacks. Well my brother was no exception. 

His chest pains were becoming unbearable. He called for medical assistance.

I do not know how medical personnel made it through the hurricane to reach my brother but they did. He was unconscious and they did not take any of his personal items with him.

When he awoke he could not remember any phone numbers or contact names. After several days he finally remembered where he worked and the number there.

My sister also lived in Florida and had been trying to contact my brother for several days. She finally called his job.

She explained that she was his sister and was worried about him because of the hurricane. They told her Oh yeah. He had a heart attack and they told her what hospital he was in.

Naturally my sister was furious. She told them that they should have looked at his file. If they had they would have known to call her as soon as they were notified.

Now I am pretty good at giving someone a good dressing down. My sister makes me look like a timid bunny. (We learned from our mother.)

It is also like my brother to want to be left alone. My mother and I each offered to take care of him when he got home. He wanted none of that. 

Mon always said he was a most unsatisfying baby. He did not like being held.

He was fine for years after all that. He moved with his job to New York. That is where he had another heart attack. He died as he lived... alone.

O Sole Mio

I hate shoes.  I hate the way they confine my feet. They always feel heavy too. And I have seldom seen any shoes that I find attractive.

When I was a baby I seldom wore shoes. At that time babies wore booties, socks, or were barefoot. I was probably barefoot.most of the time.

As I got a little older I had very few times that I needed shoes. All children in the area were the same. 

When it came time for me to go to school I had to wear shoes to school. At that time girls and boys wore dress shoes to school. Tennis shoes were only worn in the gym.

When I was grown suddenly I needed shoes for everything. Except home. I did not wear shoes at home. With no shoes I even took the garbage out for the garbage men to pick up.  Even in the winter when there was snow on the ground.

Our little family moved to Tennessee. My husband had a new job there.

Shoes were seldom required there. I was even barefoot when I went to the grocery store,

For a day out I often took my children to the state park. No shoes required.

Because my husband was a truck driver he was usually gone all week. Family time was on the weekend.

I was having another child. There was no hospital near us. When my babies finally decided to be born they were born quickly.

My husband thought it was not a good idea for me to be alone with three very small boys when it was time to go to the hospital. We were going to stay with my parents in Detroit.

We were almost to Ohio before I realized that I forgot my shoes. I had set them by the front door so I would remember them.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to buy shoes in Detroit when you have none to wear into the store?

Ick!

I lived in Nebraska and Iowa. Except for one summer in Washington State that was where I would be.

I love this part of the country. In small towns and on farms you can look up at the night sky and see the stars. 

We often were outside on the porch at night. It was the way families relaxed after a long day.

Parents would talk about the things important to them. The family pet (usually a dog) just laid there enjoying the peace. Children would play little games, sometimes get into little scuffles, and best of all wind down before time to go to bed.

When my children and I were living in Tennessee we also spent evenings on the porch. We would play board games if there was enough light.

Our porch was a simple concrete rectangle up a couple of steps from the yard. I sat on that concrete with the children as we played.

Then came the evening that I leaned back a bit using my arm for support. As I put my hand on the concrete of the porch I felt something soggy. 

I brushed it off the porch thinking it was something one of the children dropped after partially chewing it. Then I saw behind the children that the porch was covered with little creatures.

Because it was getting dark the slugs had come out. Eeewww.

I did not even know what they were. I asked a neighbor the next morning. She told me about them and how they come out at night. They were such a nuisance.

Space Race

It was hardly believable. They announced 7 miliary pilots who were training to go to the moon. They would be called astronauts. It was 1959.

Who would have thought it? It was the stuff of science fiction.

To be fair we had sent up satellites. We even put poor animals in some of them. But people???

Of course Russia wanted to beat us to it as much as we wanted to beat them. I always thought that Russia and the United States were part of the Moon Treaty prohibiting a country from claiming any part of space for themselves. Russia and the United States have not signed. But I digress.

The astronauts trained vigorously. NASA worked to perfect the space ships. It was an exciting time.

 Finally we were ready to send men to outer space. So was Russia.

Then we sent a man to orbit the Earth. Russia did it before us.

On the day they launched John Glen into space our schools gave us the day off to watch it from home. It was spellbinding. It was a proud day for our country.

Since then there have been tragedies. There have been triumphs. We have seen men walk on the moon. What can be more special?