In the past I have past the anniversary of the date of my birth with little or no fanfare. I took what little congratulations I received with a grain of salt. Read the cards and put them on the shelf. Ate my cake with guilt and at the end of the day I was glad it and the ballyhoo was over. This past week though I hit the big 7-0 and there is no way around how to put it, it is an old age. I even reversed the 7 and the 0 they put on the cake (if they had put that many candles we would have had to have the fire department standing by) thinking this would be the perfect time in my life to become dyslexia. Ahh, to be 7 again. Not really, I have become accustomed to this age I am now and knowing what I know, I would not like to go through the last 63 years again.

They had a huge party for this one and all of the children, grandchildren and great grandson showed up. A few of the grandchildren could not make it and as with all such gatherings the ones who weren’t there were sorely missed. How different would it be if they ere there. What would have occurred had their presence been. What didn’t occur because they did not show. Some wanted to be there and couldn’t, others were not there by choice. I would have probably been one of those if I had been given a choice. 

The ones that came had a good time. They had been forewarned by Gram that no inter family squabbles would be tolerated. It seems that where there are two or three Duffs gathered together an argument will soon break out. There was none and for a while it seemed that all the children had reverted to being teenagers. The children did impromptu skits from “Grease “ one of the grandsons did a good imitation of John Travolta. Since he is tall and thin, he did a great job. Later they all gathered around the Wii and did Karaoke. That was a trip. Most of the songs they were singing were as alien as Japanese Opera, but it was fun and funny. I suddenly realized that I had better get off the 50’s station on xm radio. 

At last all the cards were opened and read aloud. Thanks to my wife, she seems to be able to hold her poise a lot better than I under such circumstances. After all the tears were wiped we finally cut the cake. That seemed to lift the solemn halo from the gathering and the party rolled on until dusk. One of the children asked if I wanted the numbers that had topped the cake. I said nothing, but took them to the garbage can and unceremonious dumped them in. 

I look forward to next year when I will have a 71 and if I can be dyslexia again that puts me up to 17.… now that was quite a year to try to do over.