We Like Birthdays!

Yesterday I was under the weather with a stomach ache, so I didn’t work on the blog. All I did was work on finding a place to stay in Sarasota and campgrounds in between to get there. Gary’s eye is getting worse and it’s now affecting his vision – YIKES! We gotta get there as fast as possible, so I’ve planned overnighters all the way down (except in North Carolina where we’ll stay for a few days to visit family and friends). But then it’s lickety-split back on the road. I think I’ve got it covered, but I don’t know any availability yet, because we don’t know what days we will be in which state. It all depends on how quickly they can get Bella fixed. Keep your fingers crossed.

Saturday was littlest brother birthday party time. It’s so cool that I was able to celebrate both my brothers’ birthdays with them this year! They, as a habit, don’t celebrate birthdays, so it was extra sweet to recognize those very special days. I can remember when my littlest brother was born (I was 5), but not my little brother (I was 2). Kirk was almost two at Easter (one of my favorite holidays – chocolate, donchaknow) when he got into his Easter basket and found a cellophane-wrapped chocolate bunny. I think he was fascinated by the noise of the cellophane at first, and of course, he needed to put it in his mouth like all babies. He had some teeth by then and must have chewed a tiny hole in the wrapper, because all of a sudden he got a taste of that melted bunny and he went to town trying to get at that chocolate. My cousin’s family was over, too, and I can remember all of us watching and laughing as he sucked and gummed half that bunny out of a tiny hole.
It’s interesting what one remembers. My mother passed away 5 years ago from Alzheimer’s, so, just in case, I have been writing down things that I think I will want to remember in a little journal. I write anything at all – it could be a poignant memory, an exciting one, sad or just something really unusual. From time to time I read it and it gives me a gentle insight to what is important to me. If anyone else read it, they might get a sense of who I was and what life meant to me. Of course, no one is allowed to read it until I’m long gone – so don’t get any ideas out there…

But, back to Saturday! After the boys quit working on the dog fence, we cleaned up and packed the cooler with macaroni salad, hummus, and potato salad. We put a folding table and cooler in the Buick and headed east to Middlesex where Kirk and Patty live. Kirk was in the kitchen cutting up some black bass he caught on one of his many fishing trips. These small pieces he was going to dip into some homemade batter and cook in his little deep fryer. I can’t tell you what he put in his batter because it’s his secret recipe – and after we tasted these fish we decided he should sell them – they were THAT good. We had broccoli slaw, hot dogs, ribs and pepperoni bread compliments of neighbors. Ooooh, it was all yummy. We sang happy birthday and had a delicious ice-cream cake made by Patty as Kirk opened his present. He loved it, and even put it on. Yes, he actually was voted cutest baby in 1959 by a newspaper competition. I wish we could have found the certificate (it’s somewhere…) but this is the photo that won. So my question (and probably yours, too) is ‘what happened’? Typical response.

Happy birthday, littlest brother…