HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEN!

Happy Birthday  Ken!

Today you start the sixth decade of your life.  How did it get here so fast? It seems like we have been pedaling hard all these years just to stay even but time doesn’t care. It just keeps going anyway.

So today, take a few moments to reflect. Think of all the people who have come and gone in your life, family or friends, or just acquaintances. Many of them contributed something to your life, sometimes without realizing it.

Count the blessings you’ve had in this life and look forward to many more, believing they will happen.

Don’t dwell on what is ahead of you, but take this moment right now and fly with it, enjoy it, savor it and get the most out of it that you can.

Since you are getting older and most likely more forgetful, I have listed a few things you might want to remember or think about:

Your Early years:

Grandma Mills nicknamed you “Menace” after Dennis the Menace. Did you earn that nickname rightfully and live up to it?

The Geritol years – for your mom I mean.  She said she would get so exhausted when you were little and try to take a nap on the couch. You’d lift her eyelids and ask her if she needed Geritol or ask her, “Do you have the gray sickness?”

Going night fishing with your dad to Fowler, Ohio and sleeping on a blanket?

Grade school:  You had a PTA Mom who knew all the teachers AND the principal. You couldn’t get away with anything. Mom didn’t hesitate to walk to the school to see what you had been up to. And by the way, who really threw that boy’s shoe into the light fixture of the classroom?

Do you remember seeing your mom standing in the kitchen screaming at you with one leg in the wastebasket as she tried to escape the dead rat you held precariously in front of her?

Junior High:

Poor Tom Gordon – you used to tell the teacher to “Make an example out of him” when he was accused (rightfully or wrongly) of doing something wrong.

Do you really know why that one teacher left the room crying after your class gave her a hard time and never returned to teach again?

High School:  How many times did your car “really” break down that you had to leave Mr. McCoy’s class? And how, if that car didn’t work, were you able to show up at my high school to pick me up?

Did your mom appreciate the frog you left in your lunch box?

How much money did you make from Lynn Russell when you caught him “Using one of my phrases” and made him pay you to use it?

Youth Group:  I can still see you now. I was sitting in the choir behind the preacher and you were opening and closing your hymnal like a frog singing.

You met this skinny, shy blonde who thought you were the funniest and nicest thing on earth. You helped build her confidence, exposed her to lots of new foods including a corn dog at the Canfield Fair. I’ll bet now you wish that skinny blonde didn’t like so many foods because she is no longer skinny, although with help she is still blonde!

Twenties:  Working in the steel mill, stopping for a beer with your dad at the Royal Gardens.

Best friends with Barb and Ed, spending most weekends doing something with them, from playing board games, bowling, camping or going out to eat. Remember Joe’s Riveria and the polka tunes?

Fishing at Mosquito with Bob and Ed. Ed fell in and you gave him your jacket to wear which was down to his knees.

The time you three were fishing at Pymatuning and fell asleep, the boat drifted into PA territory and you were caught with fishing poles but no PA fishing license? They left you to take the blame, went for a beer, and you had to come up with the money for a fine.

Having children. Karin at age 22 and Kenny at age 25. Young parents learning as we went. Two toe-heads who gave us so much satisfaction in life, so much laughter and joy, and now so much pride.

Treasurer of church:  Did you ever imagine holding such a position?

30’s:  Jobs changing over and over, trying to make a living for your family. And then you landed in an art museum after having worked in a steel mill. Who would have guessed?

40’s:  Becoming a grandparent. One of the greatest feelings in the world, yet coupled with lots of fear at first. Miracles are shown to us over and over during this time.

50’s:  Photography and becoming very good at it. Something that you had wanted for so long and finally fulfilling a dream.

Camping again.

Planning for retirement and how you want to spend it. “Homeless and Trailer Trash.”

Now you are 60 and we are buying you toys again for your birthday. Maybe retirement or the golden years is actually fun times, reverting back to our carefree days of childhood, not caring what others think of what we are doing, saying or wearing, enjoying the moment, laughing at ourselves and able to see so much good in the world. Realizing now how fast time goes and not wasting a minute of it.

I love you Babe. Happy Birthday!