May Is My Birthday Month

I used to think that I was the only little girl that had a birthday on the twenty fourth until I went to school. Birthday’s were celebrated with ice cream and cake for the most part. I have mentioned that I was older when I had my first birthday party. I didn’t miss having a special party though, because my family always celebrated with me. Somewhere I have a picture of my dad holding my big angel food cake that mom had made me pretending to take a huge bite out of it. Of course, I was screaming and yelling to play the game with him. It was fun. I took some pictures of the birthday checks I would get. I never cashed these. Mom made the suggestion that I might want to keep some in my scrapbook. I am so glad I saved at least one. The usual amount of a birthday check was one dollar. One time my grandma sent me two birthday cards, each with a dollar in it and mom made me give one back. She said that Grandma had just forgotten that she had sent me one and so she sent me another. I was rotten I wanted to keep them both.
One of my birthdays was traumatic. My mom gave me three dollars to get the kids in my class a dairy queen. I lost the money. I cried and cried. I think the teacher paid for it and mom gave her the money again.
One birthday I had on a new dress. The skirt was rows of ruffles. I got up on top of the slide and a screw was sticking out and caught the stitching on the bottom row of ruffles and tore the skirt all the way to the waist. Again I cried. The teacher had to call mom and dad to bring in clothes for me to wear. I was so embarrassed I just wanted to go home.
I am sitting here staring out the window looking at the beautiful timber across the road, trying to remember birthdays. I cannot remember another childhood birthday after the one at the farm. I think there may have been sleep overs, but I think that was it. Here is a picture of an invitation to that party. A party I don’t remember. It was on a Sunday at Lincoln School at two o’clock in the afternoon. I cannot imagine a party at a school ground. It was in 1953 therefore I was nine years old. I am kind of thinking we were picking up girls to take them home with us. If anyone reads this and remembers, it would be fun to hear. You will also see a photo of the birthday check. That was in 1948 for my fourth birthday; the things we save.