Mom's 90th Birthday - 8/8/22 - features special surprise guests!

Who might the surprise guest be?

                                            

OR

                                            
                                             

Bernice the Matriarch was always onstage. Various families would arrive. And it was on account of my mother and my father that these families were given life.

Just this morning the pavers were putting the finishing touches on my street. The road is as smooth as a silver lake.

 I love the design of Wonder Cleaners on Easton Road. Took this shot early this morning when going to the bank.

 Patrick, 7, built a helicopter all by himself, following the instructions. He has amazing conversations with everyone, including Scott, and knows the history of our whole family.

Scott discussed particulars of shaving his head with Lynn, whose boyfriend also shaves his. They both use electric razors and do it every few days. This isn't quite as interesting as I thot it might be.

Lynn flew up from her new home in Florida to celebrate this triumphant day.

My daughter Sarah was unable to be with us since she's working for NBC covering the Olympic boxing matches.

This is my little girl who was born in Brenham, Texas, when her dad and I lived at Married Student Housing at UT Austin.

The anchors asked her to write copy and then they read it off the teleprompter, which was quite a thrill, she said.

We call them "the younger generation." The three of them all managed to find jobs in this dreadful economy. Matt, a psych major, works in his field at an adult daycare center in New Jersey. Loves it!

Jade is a paid environmental intern for the summer. She goes around spraying invasive plants to kill them. And Al is one of two rickshaw drivers in downtown Philly. Rickshaw meaning cyclist pulling people.

Nikki got a phone call from her principal who wanted to know what textbooks she wants to use in the Fall. She'll teach first grade. She comes from a family of educators on her dad's side.

Here's Nik with her mom Donna, my sister.

Newly married Jade awaits the wedding photos from June. She crocheted a potholder for Gram's bday.

Nothin like pies, as we all know from Twin Peaks by David Lynch.

When it was time for dessert I injected an additional 6 units of insulin.

My main meal was pizza from Angelo's in Southampton. I called them up and said we're having a party for 20 people. If each person eats two slices, and some people drive 90 miles to get there, and gas is $3.63 at the Giant, but I get 30-cents off b/c of my bonus card that expires on August 18, then how many pizzas should I get.

Three, said Al, who brought them to my car for me.

                                                              

My neighbor Patrick arrived to take the bday photos. He had a neat-looking Canon that he hasn't used in two years. Pat used to be a wedding photographer and took instant command of the shooting.

Pat set us up for a family portrait outside on the front lawn. After he shot the photos, he took pix for all of us who gave him our own cameras. Very efficient! Very impressive.

When we were in the kitchen, I said to Donna, If all of us stay here and never leave, we'll never die.

Grace moves like a whirling dervish. She's never still. See her tattoo of James the Train?

There are many gathering places at a party. At one point, I was walking around and nearly every one of the younger generation were looking at their iPhones. We wanna get mom an iPad. "Not yet," said mom. "Wait till I get rid of some of my papers."

She will never get an iPad.

She got beautiful flowers from Cousin Lloyd from New York and also from her childhood friends from Cleveland Lenore and Nate Oscar, who are her same age. They split their time between Cleveland and Phoenix. Ninety years old. The new seventeen.

In mom's bedroom hangs a photo of my dad and his brother Marvin. I'm going to pretend my dad, as a little boy, is sitting with me here on my red couch, eagerly watching me type.

"Harold," I say. "You'll never believe this, but when I'm your age - eight years old - YOU are going to teach me how to type."

"You will be a successful businessman," I say, and own the legendary Now & Then Shop in New Hope

                                                

That's where I met my husband, the late Millard Grove Deming. On the day he and his lil brother David arrived, they used Traveler's Cheques as currency. He told me his name was "Mike," but my dad told me his real name.

I am under strict orders to wear sox b/c I have diabetes. But you know what I did? I went barefoot outside for two days in a row. My feet were just aching to taste the soft wet grass.

Mom made a delicious chocolate cake with mocha icing. The recipe used to be on the box of Hershey's cocoa.

Serious dessert eaters.

Lynn brot mom this gift box from Florida that includes Good n Plenty and Panda licorice and honey-roasted almonds.

All I could do was look at them and weep.

Old photos were brought out. Here I am with the family dog Triscuit.

I began coloring my hair when I was 45 and was in psychoanalysis with Beth Lindsey, who later in life became a Buddhist nun.

Cousin Lloyd, Sarah Lynn, Ellen and me.

Mom and Dad.

We remembered my late brother David, dead at 27. This is his chair, said my mom, with a pillow he made.

It's past Donna's bedtime so she conked out on the living room couch.

Paddy and Quinn explored a television they just discovered.

Twas dark when I drove home thru the back roads. I went slowly with the buzz of the party still in my head. Kept my eyes open for deer or rocky raccoons who might dart onto the dark road.
                       
If you think today was exciting.....well, tomro is GARBAGE DAY!