Two Birthday Parties

Our mother's birthday was in a February. Of course, we always observed it however we could. But we celebrated two "big" birthdays with special parties.

70th Birthday - 1998

For Mom's 70th birthday, we sisters hosted a surprise party. We invited many of her friends to come surprise her at her house. It was a real surprise for her. We told her we were having a family get-together and that we would bring the food.

Shortly after noon that Sunday, people started arriving. That was Mom's first clue. She was especially surprised when she saw her sister and niece walk by the dining room window. We played a trivia game and served a variety of delicious food. So happy our cousin was able to bring our mother's oldest sister.

80th Birthday - 2008

As described by one of my sisters:

Blizzard of '78

It was 48 years ago that a January blizzard struck our state.

I have previously written (scroll down) about this snowfall so I shall not explain my personal remembrance of it again. But the winter of 1977-78 was definitely a rough one. Especially if you were commuting ~40 miles on state highways.

Perry Mason's Last Case

When I was a kid in the 1960's, we frequently watched "The Early Show" when we got home from school. Mostly black-and-white movies from the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's, I suppose.  We always enjoyed the Tarzan movies, especially when Johnny Weissmuller was the star.

One movie of the series included a character played by Raymond Burr, later known as the title character in the "Perry Mason" television series. That series first aired in 1957.

I do not recall the plot of the Tarzan movie with Raymond Burr. But I do recall that he got caught up in an elephant stampede and was killed. At which point one of my siblings said something like "That's Perry Mason's last case." We all thought that was hilarious.

About 8 years ago, Turner Classic Movies must have been highlighting Tarzan movies. I probably "watched" or sat through several of them. And suddenly, there was Raymond Burr. I stuck through until the end when Perry "lost his case."

I've since learned the title of that particular movie was "Tarzan and the She-Devil" from 1953.

While watching the movie in 2018, I made some screen-shots and created my own graphic.

Perry Mason's last case

Perfect Attendance

This is an email that I sent to sibs in 2022.

1st thru 12th grades:
I missed a day in 1st grade and a day in 6th grade.

I was a part of "not everyone gets an award" generation.
Perfect attendance was only recognized by classroom teachers at their own discretion.
I have books for "perfect attendance" from Mrs. Farnsworth and Mrs. Wiles.

College: I missed a day the last summer I was at EIU to go to a job interview.

Just call me Gabriel tooting my own horn.  😇

.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

My first supervisor at PCU always misspelled correspondence using an a. Typically he would hand me a handwritten something-or-other that I'd have to type up. (He was president of a state-wide library committee, and I guess I was his personal secretary.) I eventually used to return his original corrected in red ink.

Comparing attendance and correspondence ..... One can understand why they're misspelled.

I recently wrote a thank you and included the words sweet and treat. Luckily I did not say sweat.

Goodreads 2025

Oh, Boy

Sebastian Roland

October 6, 2025     8:30 a.m.

8 lbs. 10 oz.     21 inches

Smart TV

 

Now, this I could go for.