Birthday Memories: Sr. Grace Mary
I do not have any Birthday pictures. My family (parents) were not big into picture taking, and we didn’t live near doting relatives! However, we did celebrate our birthdays. As far as I can remember, we always had a cake. And, when we were old enough to know, we could say what kind…even if it came from the bakery! In addition we developed a pre-birthday ritual, which I think grew out of the fact that we would be so excited about our coming birthday that we didn’t want to go to bed the night before. SO, we had the practice of my mom and dad throwing the Birthday girl (and eventually boy) into bed the night before her/his Birthday. They would take us by the arms and legs, give us a swing, and heave us into bed. Quite silly when you think about it…but fun and highly anticipated, nonetheless. We always received a present or two. Among other things, on my 16th birthday, I was gifted with being able to use the telephone without asking (these were still the days of party lines and limited number of phone calls per month). My sisters were jealous!