Happy Birthday To Me......

Another Birthday...how old am I?  39............................and holding.  ;D  Going to our son & DIL's for my annual BBQ hamburger tonight.  He does a really good burger.  Will likely be her sis, maybe hubby too (he works a lot) & their daughter, hopefully an uncle (who will be 92 this fall), & of course my spouse, youngest son & our young grandchildren will all be sharing my birthday dinner.  Our daughter & family live too far away to come, but she will phone.
 
Birthdays come & go, each one a special day to me, some really happy, a surprise or two, some sad....but mostly good memories.  They are beginning to really pile up, so why do I still feel inside like the little one I used to be?  The first one I remember was my 6th when I found a little collie pup waiting for me in our farm kitchen.  He looked just like Lassie & followed me everywhere.  About a month after he arrived, the two of us were playing behind the driveshed.  The ground was rocky with limestone shelves.  I tripped, fell, skinned my knee & proceeded to howl at the top of my lungs.  Skip, the pup, looked at me, sat down beside me, pointed his black nose skywards & joined in with loud yips & yowls.  Mom, in her kitchen, heard the ruckus & came running, thinking there was some disaster, but was only a tearful, slightly hurt, child & her pal who could only help by becoming part of the chorus.
 
My 8th was a rememorable one in that it was the 1st & only time I had two birthday parties in one day.  We had moved from the farm into the nearby village the year before on Hollow'een of all days.  Mom felt I was really missing my chums at the 1-room school house, but for some reason she had it in her head that the village children & the country children would not get along, or perhaps she thought I would enjoy the party more if I could spend time with each bunch separately...who knows.  In the afternoon the country kids came, prezzies in hand, & we played outside on our front lawn.  Several of the village children wandered by.  I think they thought we were a "strange" family to have divided my birthday in such a way.  After dinner, the village kids came with their prezzies, but kept any remarks, if there were any, to themselves.  Despite a slightly awkward day, I did enjoy myself & I believe all the children did too.
 
My 14th one wasn't quite so happy or even celebrated very much.  It was the 1st time I baked my own cake & prepared the whole birthday meal.  Mom had fallen the month before, breaking her ankle & was laid up in bed.  It fell to Dad to look for a prezzie for me & he failed....miserably.  No prezzie at all.  Happy Birthday to me....  In later years he owned up that he had looked for something, thought about a camera & decided I wouldn't like it.  I would have loved the camera!  I would have!  Even a bag of candy would have been enough.
 
21st birthday....spouse's boss & wife threw a surprise one for me.  Another surprise one was on my .........th (still 39, ya know!) when Big Brother & wife caught me completely unaware by having it 2 weeks ahead of time, leaving me flabbercasted, almost speechless.  All the families turned up.  On the actual date, son & DIL had the BBQ's burger for me so that year was a double celebration again.
 
The sad ones were the ones after my parents' deaths, as were the Christmas's, but such is life...my memories are good ones, my life is great--some ups, some downs, some Good G-a-a-w-d!  Today, I think, is going to be one of the good ones.
 
Starfire