Thursday, 11.03.05: Happy Birthday to Us
Today is my sister Kathleen's birthday. Instead of a simple happy birthday tune, I'll play this little number from the past.
Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate
The voices are my Aunt Mary and her sister Kate (my mom) at a family party in 1944. I don't know what made me think of this song yesterday, but I realized that I also have a sister "Kate" (even though as a child she refused to let us give her a nickname). I don't know how much shimmying Kathleen does these days -- but she definitely shimmers. Sharing the same birthday (11 years apart), we're alike in many ways. But, while I got the bookishness, she got the gregarious, fun-loving personality -- and the ability to laugh uncontrollably at her own stories.
Yep, it's my birthday too. Nobody told me that the first birthday
without my dad would be an occasion for weepiness. It's funny. It's not
like I celebrated my birthday with my parents more than a handful of
times in the last 40 years, but all those childhood memories come
flooding back. For a stretch of years -- maybe late grade school and
high school --
birthdays
meant my parents taking me and my best friend du jour to the St.
Louis Hawks basketball game, followed by a late night snack at Luigi's
or Stan & Biggie's. The games were fun though I wasn't really a fan -- I
think the thrill was more in how much my dad enjoyed it and the
togetherness of the first shivery night out in November.
When you think of it, those November 3rd in 1948 and 1959 were bigger occasions for my parents than for us newborns (though my sister's birth on my 11th birthday was definitely exciting for me). Their first grandchild was born on November 4 -- Molly. A cluster of grand events.
And the wheel goes round and round...
...
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