Happy Birthday Superman

The Beatles - When I'm 64

I remember listening to this song as a teenager... 64 sounded like forever away.  Well I guess it goes by quicker than we would all have expected.  So today, I send it out to my Superman on his 64th.

August 13th 1948

Happy 64th Birthday Superman

Born just after World War II

  You were born under a waxing gibbous moon

Average Cost of new house $7,700.00

Average wages per year $2,950.00 

Cost of a gallon of Gas 16 cents

Average Cost of a new car $1,250.00

Loaf of Bread 14 cents

LB of Hamburger Meat 45 cents

Movie Ticket 60 Cents

1 million households own Televisions was 5,000 just 3 years earlier

President Harry S. Truman

United States Population: 146,631,302

You are 64 years old.

You are 23,360 days old.

You are 560,643 hours old.

You are 33,638,589 minutes old.

You are 2,018,315,340 seconds old.

Born This Year

John Ritter

Glenn Frey

Prince Charles

Alice Cooper

Al Gore

Samuel L. Jackson

James Taylor

Chart Toppers - August 13 1948

It’s Magic - Doris Day

Woody Woodpecker Song -

The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Gloria Wood & The Campus Kids)

A Tree in the Meadow - Margaret Whiting

Bouquet of Roses - Eddy Arnold

COVER OF TIME THE WEEK YOU WERE BORN

New York Times Front Page

August 13th, 1948

I Hope It Was A Good One 

Your Zombie Watching Baby

White Wine in the Sun - Tim Minchin

In a past blog I said I had made peace with Christmas.  3 Christmas Seasons back I decided to get off the Christmas Merry Go Round.  The first year I wasn't sure how it would go.  I did not set up my tree.  I did not set out all the pieces of treasures I had collected over 30 years of domestic Godess-ness.  I have the needle point ornaments I made the first year we were married. I have the ones the kids made.  I have the collection pieces that came later in life.  The toilet roll nativity scene is a great juxtaposition next to the lenox finery.  Every year as I put those things out, I felt connected to the past and a link to the future.  Would I be lost without this ritual?

In my cutting ties with the commericalization of Christmas, I did not buy presents.  None.  I baked cookies (really good cookies) for those who are important to me.  I had my children, their families, my Ex. and his girlfriend, and my boyfriend in for an exquisite meal of hand trussed fillet Mignon and creme brulee with raspberries and everything in between.  That was it.  No gifts for my grandchildren, children, special others.  None. I kept waiting that first year to panic and go out and purchase gifts.  I held tight.  I am still holding tight 3 Christmases later.

Like the singer of the song, "I Really like Christmas, and yes I have all the ususal objections to consumerism, to the commericalization of an Ancient religion, to the Westernization of a dead Palestinian, pressed into the selling of PlayStation's and Beer." All the hurry to complete the daunting lists of tasks.  It isn't for me anymore.  Don't buy me presents.  Enjoy my company, my cookies, a meal.  Your presence is my gift.  Be present in this moment, this memory. In the years that come when I am absent and you carry on the traditions... well that is the gift I gave you.  Drink little cokes, eat tea cakes, put out reindeer food, and read a new copy of "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  Go forward with the things I took forward.  That is the spirit of Christmas, not what you unwrapped.  So I no longer put the energy into the things in Christmas that don't matter.  I come to you with a soul that is rested, a mind that is clear, a bank account that isn't drained...and I am present and watch you do the Christmas Dance because it is your turn to orchestrate.

I am going home for Christmas this year.  I haven't seen my sister in 3 years, my brother in 2.  ....

"Wherever you are and whatever you face, these are the people we make you feel safe in this world....You know whatever comes, your brothers and sisters will be waiting for you in the sun whenever you come....waiting for YOU!   I really like Christmas, it's sentimental I know."

I am going to listen to Christmas songs as I drive the 1000 miles... to HOME!



Pearl Jam -Just Breathe

August 10th 2012
35 years ago today my life changed course.  I was 15. His name was Tommy.   He was my first serious boyfriend.  You have all been there.  The one that all your firsts were with.  I learned to kiss with him.  We layed in fields and watched clouds and talked about everything. Our names if we were married would vary only one letter in the whole of our names first middle and last.  One of us had an O, where the other had an A.  Almost exactly alike.  It was 35 years ago today that he killed himself.  I know now he wasn't my soul mate.  I know it would have run it's course and he would just have been a part of my life.  But that wasn't the way it turned out.  Long story short my ex-husband was his best friend.  He was a buoy on rocky seas.  He missed him too.  We were together 30 years.   We would have never married, never had our children.  I would not be who I am.  I feel sometimes like I lived decades to stabalize the shock waves that rose up that day that August day.  Other days I think it was what put me where I was supposed to be ... right where I am.  So today I just say his name on my soul.


Today a 1000 miles from my home town... I want to remember him. Good or bad, happy or sad...he REALLY changed my life.  

It's been 35 years... Peace be with you

TLW 

March 25th 1960 - August 10th 1977