My Birthdays

My Birthdays
Being born in February wasn't exactly conducive to having birthdays on warmer days and thus a number of my birthdays are vague and therefore not particularly memorable. However, some of them stand out at least to the degree that I can remember, what took place on those days. For example, my 20th.; that was the day Louise saw me off on a train headed for Albany N.Y. and our final destination was to be Troy at a school which I shall call R.P.I. because I can't spell the actual title of this university. It had an excellent reputation rivaling the best of the tech schools. Why is this so memorable? It's because I was now in the U.S. Navy and I was headed for my first training facility. I am not going to dwell on this although I was very proud having successfully passed quite a number of varying tests that were the major part of our enlistment. A quick example was that the first battery of tests taken in Rochester N. Y.found me one of nine out of 36 passing the first level.
My 30th was notable in that Louise surprised me and had a friend keep me in a hotel bar while he got drunk and kept me from going home. I arrived home to "SURPRISE"and our new but very small house was packed to the ceiling with friends and neighbors. I mean packed. Our living room was about 11' by 13' and I had walled up the entrance to the kitchen to get more wall space thus allowing our furniture to fit. People were sitting on stairs leading to our ex-pandable upper level. If you enjoy friendships there was plenty of happiness to share that evening.
My 40th birthday was only remembered because at the time I had forgotten that I had added a year but while fast asleep,I was awakened by a call from Louise, who was in Wisconsin, and that's another story which I might relate sometime. She was with a friend enjoying an evening out and called to wish me well. Should I have been suspicious with her being out at 11:00 at night?
As for my 50th, I have no recall whatsoever and so I will move along.
However, my 60th was very special. I had taken a new job and had landed at a small airport in Appleton,Wisconsin where fortunately I was met by the head of the store I was going to work for. He took me to my new residence, a hotel, and gave me directions to a restaurant where he had already made arrangements for me to have dinner that evening. The dinner was great but the hotel while completely acceptable, was to be my home for about 6 months. The company I was going to work for owned the hotel and had agreed to permit me to live there for as long as it took my family to join me . My room was quite large but right over a bar where the juke box played constantly and I never again want to hear the theme to "A Summer Place".

My 70th was, once again in a new home, now in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and while there was a party for me, it was much more subdued than was my 30th and now I will be 87 this coming Saturday. I am once again in different surroundings being in a retirement community which is replete with walkers , canes and wheelchairs. I have never seen so many geriatrics in one place and I am perturbed telling myself I don't belong here but for the first time in my life (?) I may be wrong. I am now in Arizona, Mesa, to be exact, and love it here. Its the weather that I love and when I returned to Minnsota last December, I decided to never again venture into any place north of Scottsdale during the months of November to April. I love the blue skies and the blazing sun. I will finish my last days here and whether I will live to be 90 is a question for which I'm not sure there is an answer except, possibly, do I want to?