In reading Jen’s account of Alison’s birthday party, she
said that both she and Ben remembered their fifth birthdays, which is why they
had a party for Alison this year. That got me thinking back to the earliest
birthday I remember, and for me it’s a really good memory.
I think it was the year I turned four, although it could
have been my fifth birthday. My mother was divorced and we didn’t live near any
extended family. She was on her own with two small children (my brother is 11
months younger than I am), so celebrations tended to be smaller.
Anyway, that year we went to some small dark pizza
restaurant for my birthday. I remember being pretty excited by eating out and
getting to have pizza. Plus I got a cowgirl outfit for my birthday. I still
remember how happy I felt over that gift. And then I heard the happy birthday
song playing over the restaurant’s speakers. I remember asking my mom if that was for
me and when she said yes, I just glowed with pride. All in all, that was a
great birthday.
In later years, we moved to having the birthday child pick
out dinner at home (I picked spare ribs for years and now can hardly stand
looking at them; my brother always picked tacos and Orange Crush). And I
remember my 13th birthday when my mother made me a really cool teen queen cake, complete with a 3-D crown. But still, that fourth birthday stands out in
my memory.
What about you? Do you have favorite memories of childhood birthdays?
10 comments:
My parents had the poverty-induced rule that birthday parties (i.e., a gathering to which we could invite other people outside the immediate family) could only happen every five years.
I don't remember my 5th birthday party, but I remember my 10th and 15th.
We did the special dinner thing. We always picked fondue, because it seemed so exotic, or steak. We were allowed to pick the color of the icing on the cake, which was almost always angel food cake. Maybe that's why I don't like cake!
For my 15th birthday party, my mom made birthday pies. Heaven!
I always picked angel food cake too! I still like it, but not like I did when I was little.
Hmm. Blogger ate my comment. I will try again: I'm answering your question at spynotes in a bit!
Nice! The spynotes part, not the eaten comment part.
One year I got an ice cream cake shaped like a train with oreos on the wheels. Later, as a teenager, my mother made me a Bowie cake. I've got the photo somewhere. It was hard to have a party in June after school let out because most of my friends scattered for vacations. It was usually me and a couple neighborhood friends.
I loved my June birthday -- it was usually right after school got out, so people were still around. or else we were at our lake cottage, which was my favorite place in the world anyway. My favorite cake was my grandmother's angelfood with a layer of rich chocolate frosting in the middle and covered with chocolate whipped cream frosting, although if we were home our housekeeper made incredible cakes with frosting flowers. We normally just had family parties (there were 11 of us, with the housekeeper), although I do remember a friend party when I was about 6. Not sure I really liked it. The most memorable birthday, though, was my 5th. That was the day my mother married my stepfather. (Yes. On my birthday.) I got a bicycle, which I had been wanting desperately. But it was white with a pink strip, when all I had wanted in the world was a red one. Yep.
I still feel bad about disliking that bike. It was a nice bike. It was even pretty. It was not, however, red.
You knew what you wanted, though. I wanted a Raggedly Ann doll really badly when I was in elementary school and my grandmother got me a . . . baby doll. Not the same thing at all.
I remember spying on my parents as they put together a swingset on my 5th birthday. It was glorious, not least because it's about the only thing I think they ever tried to put together themselves. Later there was help, but they got it together enough I could swing that day.
Strangely enough, I don't remember a single one of my birthdays, we stopped having them after my 7th or 8th because my mother was sick.
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