You Say It's Your Birthday....

Remember when birthdays were fun? When we used to look forward and anticipate our big day? You had Christmas and your birthday and it was a big deal. It's my birthday today and I don't think anybody up here on my new floor knows...or cares.

On my 9th birthday, I had a slumber party. All these little girls in the house and it was cool. I can remember most of the names of the girls: Terri Leigh Beazley, Melanie Dukes (now a middle school teacher in God's Land-Williamson County) Stacy Jones, Melissa Dukes, Shannon Hurt, Samantha Morgan (gosh, wonder where those two girls are now? Anybody?) Even Darrin Kirby graced us with his presence. We stayed up til 4 a.m and watched "Carrie" on the late night movie and an Elvis movie "A Change of Habit". Elvis said the word "damn" in this movie and I was shocked he would cuss. This was a few months after he died when we were all in denial that he would even smoke or take any sort of drug.

My dad arranged for Cousin Mickey, who was something of an A/V wizard, who brought video tape equipment and videoed the event. This was ultra cool because it was 1978, before most people had personal video cameras and VCR's. Only many years later do I look back at that and wonder why in the world a grown man had all this video equipment??? And why did my parents let him in the house with a bunch of little girls?? Add to that, Cousin Mickey was a permanent resident at the Mental Hospital out on Murfreesboro Rd. Hello? The same parents who wouldn't let us watch "James at 15" or "Three's Company" allowed this? Their logic amuses me now. Of course, at the time, I didn't know all this about Cousin Mickey. He was really harmless and I never noticed anything different about him. Poor guy met an unfortunate end off the bluff of the Cumberland River.

I start talking about it being my birthday and I end up talking about Elvis and cursing and mentally ill relatives. Isn't rambling from one topic to another a sign of aging?

Mr. Smiff is out of town and Jeff Ray seems pretty confident we'll get snow so I guess our celebrating will be limited to an evening with "Ed, Edd and Eddy."

As my hero Matt Foley would say.... whoop tee freakin doo.