Ramblings of a birthday girl

Yes, it is my birthday and I'm 67 years old!!! Yes, I know, I have been saying I'm 67 for a year now, but that is a tradition with me. As soon as I have a birthday I figure I'm closer to the next year, so I tomorrow I'll start telling everyone that I am 68! Crazy Polish logic I know, but that's the way I've always done it.

Here are the earliest photos of me at about a 18-24 months old in Norwalk, Connecticut, where I was born, July 19, 1942. That's my sister, Evelyn, who is 4 years old than me; she now lives in Costa Rica.

I've always thought birthdays were very special. All other holidays we all celebrate together with joy and happiness. But some one's birthday is special for them alone. It's their day - it's special for you alone. You get to do whatever you want and usually you get your favorite meal made for you. As an adult, for me, it is a time of reflection of the past year and how you want the next year to be for you. I really believe we are all in this life for a reason. We are in this life to bring something to this world to serve others. We're here to serve others in our own unique way. So what have I done this past year that helped someone else? Did I make a difference in some one's life for the better? What did I learn to do that I was able to share with someone else for their benefit? For me it is a time to take stock and see "who" you are this year and who you want to become in the next year. What changes you want to make in your own personal makeup. I want to be more kind and more tolerant this coming year...show more empathy for others. Those are my goals.

When I was a little girl I would get up on the morning of my birthday and run into my parents bedroom and wake them up early and tell them "thank you for loving each other so much that you created me". As a young adult I use to send my parents flowers on my birthday, again to say "thank you" for creating me.

One of the things I'm really proud of is instilling the specialness of a person's birthday in Jim's daughters. Christine was 12 and Beth was 7 when Jim and I married. Now they are 40 and 35. But we always made a big deal out of their birthdays when they were growing up. I always said that this was the day that God decided the world would not be complete without them in it and so He created them to complete the needs of the world. Now both of them put on birthday parties for themselves every year and really celebrate it up big. Both invite their friends to them respective homes and they cook up a storm to share food and drink with their friends. They make the day a big deal for themselves and thoroughly enjoy themselves going to art galleries, singing their favorite songs to themselves and generally just doing what makes them the happiest!

Today there are still pit toilets to clean, fee envelopes to account for and campsite reservations to be posted. But I'm take a long walk, sing opera softly to myself - I'm partial to Madam Butterfly - maybe get the Sunday Denver Post and sit outside under the awning and leisurely read.

As a young, single adult my birthday tradition was to buy a bottle of Harvey's Bristol Creme Sherry, a can of snails and a loaf of French bread and I'd make myself a plate of escargot, sopped up the garlic butter with the bread and savor a few glasses of sweet sherry. When I lived in Bermuda I actually raised snails in a gallon jar so I could still have my escargot overseas. As years went by the sherry turned to a Brandy Manhattan and the escargot changed to King Crab Legs as my favorites for celebrating my birthday. But today is the day we have all our camphosts over for our weekly potluck. So this birthday it will be spinach lasagna and chicken cacciatore and the Manhattan will become a gin and tonic because of the hot weather. But that's OK, I'll be with friends and a loving husband and that will be good.

When I was looking for an early photo of myself I ran across this photo. It was taken the summer of 1946 in Florida. So my love of camping and rving came at an early age.

The war was over and my dad wanted to take the family away for a while, so he got an old trailer and a Model T ford and drove us down to Florida to visit my Aunt Irene and Uncle Steve. Dad liked the weather better than Connecticut, and without my mother's knowledge, bought a restaurant. He had been a factory worker making component's for bombs during the war - knew nothing about the restaurant business, but my mother could cook - boy, could she cook; so Dad figured they could make it work. My dad was Czechoslovakian and our name was Petrocy. 1946 wasn't an era for ethnic restaurants except for Italian restaurants. So my dad legally changed our names to Stone, as Petrocy meant rock or stone in Czechoslovakian. So I went from Barbara Lee Petrocy to Barbara Lee Stone at age four.

I received a great birthday gift - got on the scale and I've lost three pounds!!! So today I bathed, I put a quarter turn curl in my quarter of an inch hair to look more feminine in my own eyes, put on full foundation makeup complete with rouge (old-fashioned word) and mascara, and my favorite earrings to go along with my American Land & Leisure uniform.

I'm healthy, happy, and loved. I feel useful to others. What more can you ask for? It's a GREAT birth day for me!!!