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I’ve Made it Around the Sun 71 Times

Photograph of a large seventy-one in numerals
Photo credit: Metin Ozer on unsplash.com

There’s a popular saying now: “Being in my 20s in the 70s was more fun than being in my 70s in the 20s.” There is a lot of truth in that, but I’m glad I’m in my 70s now and not in my 20s.

My parents always made my siblings and me feel special on our birthdays.

Mama always made a buttermilk pound cake and decorated it elaborately for our birthdays. She made a “doll cake” for my birthdays for many years. They were things of art I didn’t fully appreciate at the time.

There were no cake molds then for making such a cake. Mama had to make the cake in several layers of different sizes and then do some trim work to make a perfect full evening gown-shaped cake.

Everything was made from scratch. She took no shortcuts with a cake mix or store-bought icing. (I don’t think that was even a thing back then.) I wish I had a photograph of one of those doll cakes that I could share on my blog.  

Mama’s hand and fingers must have been sore for days after painstakingly decorating the doll’s evening gowns with ruffles and flowers of stiff homemade icing. I had no idea how difficult it was to use her metal cake decorator gizmo until I was old enough to try to use it myself. The operative word is “try.”

Daddy only made home movies on the following special occasions: Christmas morning, our birthdays, and sometimes on Easter morning. Film and its developing were expensive, so he usually managed to get our birthdays and those two holidays on one roll of 8mm movie film.

It was always a great day when a roll of film was developed. Daddy would set up his movie screen and movie projector in the living room, thread the projector, and alert whoever was appointed to then turn off the lights. It was fun reliving the events as many of the occasions projected onto the grainy white screen had happened more than a year earlier.

It was even more fun years later to look at those home movies. At least, it was fun until sometimes when the film would get stuck and the heat from the projector light would immediately burn a hole in the film. But I digress.

It was a special time to be a child in the 1950s and 1960s. It was a good time to be a child. At least, I can say that because I was a white middle-class child in the United States. It wasn’t as good of a time if you were a black child in the United States.

Until all the public schools were racially-integrated and black citizens secured the right to vote and receive equal service in restaurants, hotels, and in public transportation and employment opportunities, it was not a great time for them. I’m aware of that now. I wasn’t back then.

We weren’t bothered by social media and the only drugs we knew about were the ones prescribed by Dr. Nicholas Lubchenko, the family doctor who made house calls when we were sick. If you had stayed home from school because you were sick, you’d better be in bed and not on the couch watching “I Love Lucy” on the black-and-white TV when he came to check on you!

The years I spent in school dragged by slow as molasses, but the rest of my life has passed in a split second. That’s an impossible concept for people under 30 years old to understand. They cannot imagine how fast their next 40 years are going to fly.

So Happy 71st Birthday to me! I can’t believe I’m this old, but many of my friends and relatives were not so fortunate. Therefore, I try to value every day God gives me. I have been blessed beyond anything I deserved.

Since my last blog post

Finally feeling like I had recovered from having Covid in December, I thought last Thursday would be a good day on which to get my second dose of the shingles vaccine. I guess it was as good as any. I don’t want to cause anyone not to get the Shingrix shot, but that second injection laid me low for the entire weekend. I’m just one of those people who often has ill effects from vaccines, so the aches and fever were not a surprise. That they lasted for more than three days was. (Postscript added January 31, 2024: I should have also said that I had Shingles in my right eye a few years ago and it felt like there was a knife in my eye for weeks; therefore, I was eager to get the Shingrix vaccine as soon as it was available free of charge to Medicare patients. The discomfort of the side effects of the shot pale in comparison to the pain of having Shingles!)

I took advantage of my down time by reading a very good historical novel.

I admit that I had a “senior moment” when I typed the title of this blog post. Just before pressing the “publish” button, I realized I had typed the title as “I’ve Made it Around the Moon 71 Times.” Thank goodness I caught that mistake! I never would have heard the last of it! After a rough few days, it was good to have something to laugh about.

Until my next blog post

I hope you are reading a book that’s so good you didn’t want to put it down long enough to read my blog. (I read a book like that over the weekend – The Woman in the White Kimono, by Ana Johns.)

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet

32 thoughts on “I’ve Made it Around the Sun 71 Times”

  3. Happy birthday Janet! 🎉🥳🎈 It’s my husband’s birthday today as well! I relish our simpler childhoods! Your birthday cakes sound delightful! My parents have reels and reels of old home movies! So fun! I have yet to get my shingles vaccine. My sister was sick for days with hers.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Thank you, Carol! I was interrupted while reading your comment on Monday and just now getting back to it. I had a good day and I hope your husband did, too. I’ll add him to my growing list of January 29 birthday people. I hope my comments won’t deter you from getting the shingles shot. I had shingles in my right eye several years ago. It felt like a knife in my eye for weeks, so my days of side effects from the shot really pale in comparison. In hindsight, I probably should have included that information in my post instead of just whining about the side effects of the injection. In fact, I think I’ll edit my post now…. Thank you.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Oh my word! Shingles can affect your eyes?! That is a troubling thought after my detached retina experience. I think I’ve now been convinced to get the vaccine sooner than later!

    Liked by 1 person

  21. She certainly has, just based on what I read in your book. I hope she has come through it all with good health. She has to be extremely proud of your accomplishments.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. Yes, it was focused in my eye and went up that side of my forehead and into my scalp. I permanently lost some feeling in my forehead and I have scar tissue on my eye. It is the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. I would literally pace the floor in the middle of the night waiting until I could take the next pain pill.

    Liked by 1 person

  24. After what you went through with your eye, I’d really hate for you to get shingles. There’s not a good place to have it, I guess, but anything about my eyes totally stresses me out.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. What a wonderful mom and dad you had. Kids never appreciate what their parents do for them until later in life. You sure brought back some memories with this post Janet, like a flashback from the past! How terrible to get Covid and then a reaction to the shingles vaccine! I have never heard of getting shingles in your eye, how painful indeed! I hope you are feeling better now and Happy Birthday Janet!

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Thank you, Diane. I’m glad it brought back some fond memories for you. I thought I was going to escape Covid, but whammo! And shingles in the eye was something that tested my endurance for sure! I would pace the floor in the middle of the night just trying to make it until time for the next pain pill. And then, when I learned that you can have Shingles more than once…! I think I’ve recovered from Covid. This is Day 12 for the red splotch the size of my hand on my upper arm at the site of the Shingles shot. If anyone can have a reaction to a shot or medication, I seem to be at the front of the line! Not life-threatening reactions, though, so I shouldn’t complain. This, too, shall pass. I’m ready for spring, flowers, and green grass!

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