June 23

Today is my 58th birthday, my last "magical" birthday.  A "magical" birthday is when one of the numbers corresponds to the age you are , so since I was born in 1958, this is it.

I woke up thinking about my mom.  I was born six weeks premature and she was terrified that something would be wrong with me.  One of the neighbors told me that she told THEM I would be ( and I'm quoting here)  "retarded and have to be institutionalized"   GEE THANKS MOM!  That's what they did back then with kids who were differently abled.  I was just really small.  I was in the hospital for a long time and they would drive to see me and I was sleeping so they wouldn't wake me up.  I was there until I gained and held my weight.  They were supposed to keep babies until they made 5 pounds, but I was not quite there, but was holding my own.  GEE I wish I had trouble gaining weight NOW!

We are heading out for a small vacation.  I have NO plans to do anything where we are going except rest and maybe read.  I need a vacation of nothing. Vacations like the one we had in May are fun and I loved seeing Anna and hanging out with her, but I really need some down time of just Chris and me.

I will write a more thoughtful blog when I return.  I have been thinking about growing up in the Valley in the 60's   I saw this thing on line about brown bag lunches through the ages.  For the 60's it said kids were sent to school with a wedge salad?  HUH?  I never even HEARD of a wedge salad until I was in my 40's.  Seriously.  Lunch was peanutbutter and jelly ( I wasn't allergic as a kid) or bologna or some other gross kind of lunch meat. An orange that usually rolled over on your sandwich in the lunchbox and flattened it, chips maybe ( whatever happened to Laura Scudders or Granny Goose?) and some kind of sweet- "ding dongs" anyone?   Milk in a thermos that came with the lunch box. After seeing that, I wondered where the filmmaker did their  research.

I've been having conversations with people of my own age about the difference between our childhoods and what kids are doing now. I saw this whole conversation online about how our children's innocence was ruined by lock-down drills. We had A-bomb drills.  NOT that they would have helped AT ALL- you can't run and hide form nuclear fallout- but we lived under the constant fear of nuclear annihilation. People built BOMB SHELTERS in their backyard, for crying out loud!  Let's not get me started today.

I am off to a free breakfast at some point today at Denny's.  They give it to you anytime today and I like breakfast for lunch or breakfast for dinner so it's a win-win for me!  I just don't want them singing anything...