I realized when I was doing my research for this article how blessed that I was as a child. My husband Robert had a birthday in August and my children and I gave him a surprise party. We had a pot luck dinner and everyone brought something. Afterwards, he and I were talking about that he never had birthday parties when he was younger. From as far back as I can remember and from further back still(from black and white photos,) I always had a birthday party on my birthday. My mother would always bake a cake and it would have decorations on it with candles and all my friends and family would be invited. We would play games like pin the tale on the donkey or jacks or jump rope or we would color in my Barbie coloring books etc... We would sit down to the table and everyone would sing happy birthday. We would all eat cake and ice cream. The ice cream back then was Neapolitan it was wrapped individually. Everyone got an equal slice of ice cream and that was really helpful when you have children who fight over who get the biggest helping.
One birthday I remember better than all the others. My mother decided to have my birthday a couple days early and she was busy setting up for the party and she got a phone call from my Dad. Her face turned to sort of a look of shock. After she hung up the phone she looked at me and said the President has been assassinated. She turned on the television set and it was true. President John F. Kennedy had been shot. It was too late to cancel the party and the guest came anyhow but the day was a somber one. Each year there is a memory I have around the time of my birthday of his son who is also now deceased standing like a small tin solider saluting his father at his funeral. Mother had a book of John F. Kennedy and his family. I used to take it out of the drawer where she kept it and look at it. John Jr. and I must have been about the same age. How different his life was from mine yet in November I will celebrate yet another birthday and now he too is gone but like his father his memory remains. Perhaps that is why my Mother always tried so hard to make our birthdays happy, life is too short not to enjoy it.
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Charlotte Spell's Holidays At Home topic, please visit the Discussions page.