"Well, it's my birthday too -- yeah"

Hidden behind all those trees are the houses I grew up in. On the left is the house where my dad was born, where my grandparents lived when I was growing up. On the right is the house where my family lived. A dad & mom & 4 girls - a very "50's" type of family. It was a good place to grow up.

My grandma kept a daily diary - (I suppose you could call her an "early blogger") Every year, she would get a date book from her insurance company - it would have from six lines to 1/2 page for each day. And each day, she would write - about the weather, how many eggs they got that day, and short bits of "personal" info - "ordered seeds for next summer's garden" - "Wallace & Viola (my uncle and aunt) were by for supper" or "Went to Garden Club at Ida's today"

When we cleaned out her attic after she and my parents had all passed away, we found boxes of these yearly date books. I was most interested in finding the 1952 book. What would she have said about my birth?

Well, there it was - January 12, -(a RED LETTER day, you know) and there I was - sandwiched in between the weather and a Pamona Grange meeting. "Reid took Glennie to the hospital today. She had a baby girl. They are going to call her Tina" What? That's all? Yup. My grandma was not one to "wax poetically".

And here I am 56 years later. I got flowers from The Shepherd at work today. I brought them home so I could enjoy them over the weekend - and this afternoon, our good friend Diane brought me a lovely piece of Tiramisu cake with a candle in it. Since neither my office mate or The Shepherd like coffee flavored things, I had to eat it all myself. Ha, Ha. The Shepherd and I always take the other out to dinner for our birthday - we're going to The Black Angus this year. (Actually, if we had an Outback Steakhouse in town, that might be where I'd pick, but the closest one is 30 miles away in Burlington - so the Black Angus will do just fine.)

What? You forgot to get me a gift - well check out our On-Line Auction to benefit the Black Sheep Creamery. You are sure to find just the right special item - (OK, I was just kidding - it was simply a shameless plug for our auction)



"You say it's your birthday
Well it's my birthday too--yeah
You say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you"



(The Family Shrine, as we call it - my picture is the girl in the green dress

And we are ever indebted to John Lennon & Paul McCartney (yes, the one who was in the other band before he was in WINGS) for one of the most rockin' birthday songs around.