The Birthday Saga continues -

So, on the eve of turning 61, I am reflecting - mainly because the house is quiet and empty - Porter is asleep in his crib and the rest of the folks are celebrating at the Dodger Game - Monrovia Ward Family Home Evening Style! I volunteered for the babysitting duties.

Was looking for a specific birthday photo of me and Roseann - we share a birth day and a birth year. I have found other co-holders over the years, but none on the same day.

So I was trying to think what the first birthday was that I remembered. I think it's my 8th birthday. My friend Barbara Britten had died in March, and her mother came to my party - I don't remember ever having another birthday party as a child - but she came and brought me a set of "days of the week" underpants - that I thought were the height of luxury. She often came and talked to my mom in the months following her daughter's death from an aneurism - which no one knew about until she died suddenly. I know my mom talked to her about the plan of salvation.

What I mostly remember about birthdays as a child at home is that you didn't have to do your chores on that day, my mom washed and curled your hair for school (unheard of otherwise - hair was washed once a week on Saturday night), and you got to choose what we would have for dinner.

I also remember for a few years, my Grandma Stevens would bring out two gifts on Alice's birthday in April (Alice' s is the 26th and Grandma's was the 25th - "might as well have been a month off" she used to say!!) Whatever Alice got, I got too - but in a different color - I got a blue dress to Alice's pink one, for example. I also remember red and green lunch boxes and red and green umbrellas, but I don't know who got what color.

One year, when I turned 18, my mom made me a pink and white flowered shift with a matching jacket - I thought I was the queen of fashion in that. That was often a birthday tradition - to go choose material and Mom made you a dress.

In fact, the year before that, I got invited to prom - wasn't too excited because the date wasn't too exciting. Everyone else was excited too, so I had to use my birthday "choice" for a prom dress that Mom and Alice made. And when we went out to eat after the prom, I spilled gravy down the front!! When it got dry cleaned, the satin went limp!! When I went away to college, Alice made me a shorter dress to wear with the lace jacket that went with the prom dress.

So here are the pictures of prom dresses, and Roseann and I in 1968 on our 23rd birthdays on the 23rd! (The short blue dress is from BYU Preference in 1964, the prom is May 19, 1962 - Mom's b-day - I didn't remember that fact!)