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06/23/2003 Archived Entry: "HIPPO BIRDY TO ME AND KING EDWARD VIII"

HIPPO BIRDY TO ME AND KING EDWARD VIII

Today is my big 75th. Who would have thought I'd last this long? All I can say is that those years flew by. I’ve been very, very fortunate in many ways.

It's not hard at all to remember the birthday parties my mom had for me when I was a little person. There were girls galore in the neighborhood who came in frilly dresses carrying presents to our back yard. Then there was Jimmy Crawford. To this day, I don’t know why Jimmy Crawford came to my birthday parties. He was the only boy amid fifteen or so girls, but he appears in my birthday pictures every year. I never saw him at any other time and our parents didn’t do things together. He and I visited about this one time when I ran into him in Salina. He remembered the parties too and the fact he was the only boy. I think we decided he had a cousin who visited during the summer and she was invited so he was too. Something like that.

At some point we’d have homemade vanilla ice cream and angel food cake that mom labored over. Those things took time and were hard to do back in those days. She had a wire whisk, which lies motionless in my house, that she used to beat all those egg whites for the cake then gently fold in the flour mixture. I’ve never had angel food cake that would equal hers since then. The ice cream was another thing and there was always the worry about getting salt in with the ice cream. I wonder at that now.

So, today is my day for quiet introspection, reflection and figuring out what I could have done better. In other ways it will be just like any other day as I don’t consider it anything special. My mom did, and to me that counts for a lot. There is too much yet to do to dwell on all that very long.

My favorite daughter invited me to go to Salina for lunch or dinner, but I think it’s too hot for that. Anyway, Tyler offered to help me clean my pantry after he gets out of basketball camp. That sounds like a better alternative as it’s cool inside and I’d like to get that chore behind me. And I love having him around. That’s as good as a birthday can get.

Since Orozco’s is closed on Mondays, the birthday group will head over there tomorrow. Meredith, Cindy and I go early and stay until the lunch crowd arrives to celebrate our birthdays. Bev and Carol may join us this time too. Those are always good times with good people. We don’t lack for things to talk about.

Yep. King Edward VIII had his Wallis Simpson and I have my Roy P. I would have abdicated for him had an accident at birth caused such misfortune as to put me in the Royal family. How well I remember when Edward made the announcement of his abdication. I was thirteen. That doesn't seem so long ago.

Replies: 1 Comment

Happy Birthday!

Posted by Janis Gore @ 06/23/2003 09:15 AM CST