Candles and Smoke

Today is my birthday.  I've had fifty six of them previously, this is just the next one!  Like most people with as many annual celebrations under their belt I no longer give two hoots about the celebration itself. 

As a child each year I received a birthday card with one dollar. Back then one dollar was paper money and worth so much more than it is today. Chips wrapped in paper cost only 20 cents and a small coke or ice cream was 10 cents. I also received a letter and ten shillings (more paper money) from my English grandparents. The letter always said I could use the money to buy an ice cream. When I was under ten it sounded like good advice but as I added the years my shopping list was replaced with a new selection of wishes.

I don't remember other birthday parties but in 1970 at the age of 13, I was allowed a 'hippy party'.  I was dressed in flower-power flares teamed with a cheesecloth top trimmed with cotton lace and sporting short puffy sleeves! We danced with flowers in our hair and nondescript scarves wrapped around our heads.  My beloved multi coloured flares were eventually snatched from me and demoted to the rag bag.  How I loved those flares!

 

I was married before I was twenty one. Dustin was eighteen months and instead of a party, family and friends visited and stayed to enjoy a drink with a slice of cake made by Merv's delightful Auntie Daisy.  I have continued to successfully avoid parties.  I celebrated 'big birthdays' with trips to Geraldton and other not so grand places. My fiftieth was celebrated on a cruise from Sydney to the South Pacific with Merv and both children.   We had a wonderful time especially the added benefit of warm sunshine in the middle of June. Mel's ongoing sea sickness was the only hiccup.

Merv always tells the story of his grandparents visiting each of their grandchildren on their birthday. It was their family tradition.  My grandparents lived on the other side of the world and our children's grandparents lived too far away for them to visit.  To keep the dream alive it was up to us to make a fuss over our offspring and we did.  There were parties, expensive BIG presents with the wow factor and the cake (of course).  I have baked numeral cakes, humpy dumpty, strawberry shortcake, the list goes on. 

 

Today I shared lunch with a lovely  group of carers.  The group meets each month to gain information on caring and catch up with each other, many of them now friends. I invited big sister.  Thank you for sharing my birthday with me. 

 

On Saturday Mel, Dustin and Grace join us to enjoy home made pizzas and the proverbial cake!  I am happy that we will share a meal and catch up on news.