Al’s Birthday

There are a lot of summer birthdays in our family. Besides mine and Al’s, my sister Christine and my nephew were born on July 26. Christine came to visit us on July 4^th, and we celebrated our birthdays together. We gave each other musical birthday cards. Christine gave me one that has a picture of Snoopy, the dog from the Peanuts comic strip, dancing. She gave Al one that sings What a Wonderful World. She is a singer and often hits a high soprano operatic note. Dorothy found a card that said, “You’re not old until the fat lady sings.” When you open it, a lady sings a high operatic note! My sister laughed hysterically when she read it. Then she said, “That’s so ME!” I then said, “We all have musical birthday cards. We could give a concert! And I have something for an encore!” I went into the kitchen to retrieve my “no worry” button. It sings Bobby McFerrin’s song Don’t Worry, Be Happy. A great song for three senior citizens who are celebrating their birthdays! The button was given to me by the mother of one of my former students. I keep it in the kitchen so Al or I can activate it whenever we feel the need!

          Many thanks to all who sent birthday greetings to Al! He was touched! We had a great day. He wanted to see the animated cartoon movie Despicable Me 2. It is about a grouchy old man. We told all our friends it was autobiographical! HaHa! We went to an early movie because Q, our son-in-law, had to go to work at 4:00 pm. Afterwards we went to Al’s favorite deli in the same shopping center, then home to open birthday cards. Three of them were musical. Q gave him one that played Born to Be Wild. It had a picture of an old man sleeping on the couch! Mine had a pair of dancing underpants and sang Oops, I Did it Again by Britney Spears. Dorothy and Q’s pets even gave “Grandpaw” a card. It had a picture of a cat on it and it meowed Happy Birthday. Dorothy’s card said, “For your birthday I wanted to give you the sun and the stars – but I had to settle for the moon.” As Al opened the card, there was a picture of a man mooning him!

After supper, the doorbell rang and it there on the step was our favorite neighborhood family, the Quicks, with a birthday card for Al! Their seven-year old son had picked it out! On the front was a picture of a beautiful young lady in a bikini and it said, “She thinks you’re cute…”. On the inside it said, “For a really old guy!”

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Some of Al’s cards and the “Don’t Worry” button