Happy Birthday to Me, Again

February 1970 ~ I turned one.

I am going to be honest here.  I don't remember it.  Nothing.

I don't remember the yellow cotton dress I wore.

I don't remember the homemade cake shaped like a pink elephant.  (A pink elephant?  Really?  Like the kind drunk people are rumored to see?  Surely not.)

I don't remember that my cousins Johnny and Janine, who were born the previous December and April respectively, were watching and taking notes to see how a one-year-old was supposed to comport herself.  I hope I set a good example.

I don't remember that we celebrated my grandfather"s birthday too, with a nice rectangular cake full of candles.  He would have been 46.  (Forty-six?  Can that be?  I'm forty-one!)

I don't remember that both of my parents were there.  Together.  Though I do remember that by my fifth birthday they were not.

February 1974 ~ I turned five

On my fifth birthday my father had to drive in from out of town to visit.  He gave me a bicycle.  He took me to the parking lot of the church next to the apartment complex where we (my mother and sister and I) lived, to ride it.   He stayed only a few hours.  I'm sure there was probably a party for me that year too, but I don't remember it.

Happy Birthday Mr. President

Ronald Reagan was born on February 6,  1911.  He was the 40th President of the United States.  He liked jelly beans, had a really skinny wife, and got shot.  He also looks just like the actor Ronald Reagan, only older.

Three other Presidents were born in February.  They are...

William Henry Harrison

Born February 9, 1773.  He was the first President to die in office, after only thirty-one days.  This also makes him the president with the shortest term.  And, he looks an awful lot like the British actor, James Cromwell.

Abraham Lincoln

 

Born February 12, 1809.  He was first President ever assassinated, and he emancipated the slaves.  He was very tall, his wife was mentally ill, and he looked a little like actor Harry Dean Stanton with a beard.

George Washington

Born February 22, 1732.  He was the first President.  He was very tall for his day, had no children, liked ice cream, and had false teeth made of wood.  He has no thespian likeness that I could find, but I am open to suggestions.


Happy Birthdays Misters President!!!!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Parks

Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913.  She is known as  the mother of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." 

~ Rosa Parks 

She helped launch a nation wide boycott to end racial segregation of public services when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery Alabama bus to a white man in December, 1955.  Later in life she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to introduce young people to the importance of civil rights and Rosa's philosophy of  "quiet strength".  She died in 2005.

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Parks!

Happy Birthday Mr. Buttons/Theme Thursday

It is Theme Thursday once again, and this weeks theme is RED.  To accommodate this, I am posting Friday's "Happy Birthday..." post a little early.

Red Buttons was born February 5, 1919.  He was a noted comedian, film, and television actor from the 1940's until he death in 2006.  He was born Aaron Chwat but was given his stage name at 16 because of the way he and his flaming red hair looked in his bell hop uniform.  The name stuck.  Besides, Aaron Chwat is a funny name, but not in a good way.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Buttons!

Canadian Food Fit for Olympians?

Don't hate me.  I didn't say it.  It was the headline in my morning paper.  With the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia fast approaching, the food section ran an article on something about which Americans are completely ignorant ~ Canadian Food.  An argument could be made, and often is, that Americans are ignorant about all things Canadian, but we'll save that for another time.  Today, the food.

Have you ever heard of poutine?  Well, I had not, until this morning.  I warn you, it is not for the gastrointestinally faint.  Are you ready?

French fries and cheese curds, smothered in gravy.   This is poutine.  There is even a website with reviews, recipes and a history of this Canadian original.

I gotta tell you, fries, cheese, and gravy sounds just disgusting.  Fries, cheese, and chili on the other hand...

In answer to the rhetorical headline, I think the answer must be yes.  Canadian food is fit for Olympians.  And, only Olympians.  Food like this could kill a mere mortal.

Happy Birthday Dr. Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell was born on February 3, 1821.  She was the first woman to graduate from medical school in the United States.  Though she herself was British.

"For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women."

~ Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell

She was at first ridiculed, but later respected, by her peers.  She established clinics in New York City for poor women and their children, and opened her own medical school for women.  She encouraged good hygiene for good health, which was a bit revolutionary for her time.  She died in 1910.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Blackwell!

Public Comment

Earlier in the week, I told all of you about the big changes in store for our family.  I received such lovely comments and e-mails that I wanted to take the time to respond and say thank you.  I began to post in the "comments" section but that seemed somehow insufficient.  So, I am making my comment in a separate post.  It's my blog.  I can do that.

Thanks to all of you for your support and perspective.  It really was helpful.

When I sat down to write that post, I was in a place of stress and disappointment.  I floundered as to where to begin my narrative.  "God, help me!!!  I'm moving into my mother-in-law's attic!" came to mind.  But after staring at the computer for awhile, and chucking a couple of horrid drafts, the story presented itself clearly.  I was reminded of our origins, our original plans as a couple and a family, and I decided to tell the story from the beginning.  It did me a world of good.  And far more interesting (or at least less depressing) reading.

The reality is this.  We have always planned to leave California, but, with the economy being what it is, Hubband never would have quit his job to move.  Jonah starts kindergarten in the fall and Hubband will soon take the bar in Washington, so the timing is almost perfect.  And, it is a lovely place we will be moving too.

This is (in the long term) a good thing.  Writing it all down helped.  Your comments and e-mails helped too.

The photos are from Hubband's collection of "pictures of home."  You really should click on them to see them larger.  They are beautiful.