It's My Birthday

I’m having a great birthday so far - it’s not quite 3:00 as I write this. When we first woke up today David patted me the way you’d pat a dog. “Old TT,” he said. “Another year older.” Catchin’ up to you old man,” I said back. Then I saw that my friend Bobbie had written about me on her blog which I always love reading.  Then my big sister Nan called and we talked for a good 40 minutes. “Happy Birthday Wormhead!" she said. Then she reminisced about when I was two and she buried me in the back yard in one of those set-in-the-ground garbage cans you opened by stepping on this rusty little pedal. Then she described some people she met who were drinking what she called “Pop-Skull Vodka and Tang" and "had children who looked like they were straight out of that movie Deliverance." Then for good measure she recalled the time I wandered off at age three and the cops carried some other poor lost kid up the front porch steps and into to our house instead of me. I was missing for hours. Our mom and aunt, our ancient great aunties and our grandfather - everyone we lived  with in short: all were frantic and even looked in that sunken garbage can but as far as I can remember - and I remember this incident vividly - no one ever talked about how it was for little Nan, five, to lose her baby sister. She said for the first time today, “I was beside myself. I was a MESS.”Well I’d be beside myself if I didn’t have Nan in my life. And our cousin Sheil who texted me from outside the country just before midnight last night. And our cousin Kath who sent a card AND a Facebook message. And all those other wonderful Facebook friends. And our boy Mike who called from Brooklyn. And old Dave who picks up after me and never gets mad even when I flood the place by leaving the water on. And our niece Joanie due over in an hour along with our girls and the grandbabies. And Bobbie too, always Bobbie, and now Bobbie’s old pal Maggie from camp who I am getting to know here on the internet better and in a more heartfelt way than ever I knew her at good old Fernwood in the Berkshires where we were all young together.It’s 3:30 now and I insisted on picking up lobster for this little feast so I better go. Hope all of you out there in Radioland are having as nice a day as I am!