SoCS & JusJoJan – Birthday Wishes

Today’s post is a combination SoCS and a JusJoJan (rules here) post, both hosted by the lovely and talented birthday girl, Linda Hill. Check out Linda’s place to get the scoop on SoCS and wish her a happy birthday while you’re there!

Today’s prompt is as follows:

Your prompt for #JusJoJan and my very first birthday-Stream-of-Consciousness-Saturday is: “icing on the cake.” Write about the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the phrase “icing on the cake.” Enjoy!

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I love blogging and I love SoCS, but having a chance to celebrate Linda’s birthday is icing on the cake!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDA!

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Remembering My Sister on Her Birthday

Today would have been my sister, Barbara’s 72nd birthday. It is hard to believe she has been gone almost five years. Time is flying by.

When we bought our retirement home, we wanted a place that was reasonably close to all our family. Everyone, with the exception of our family in Florida, was within a 3 hour drive. I was excited to be close enough to my sister to drive over for the day and be back before evening fell. Little did I know I would have less than one year to spend with her.

BJ (her family nickname) was smart and an excellent writer. But her goals were closer to the heart. She never met a stranger and always opened her home to friends of her children that found themselves in difficult situations in their own homes. She was kind, but pulled no punches. If you wanted the truth, BJ was there to lay it all out on the table.

I have written here before about her affinity for taking the backroads. I lived so much of my life in a hurry and she was always there to try to get me to slow down. It wasn’t just me, though, she loved to get behind the wheel and take anyone who dared get in the car with her on an adventure.

I smile now thinking how she showed her grandchildren a ‘special place’ that was only revealed in certain times of the year. She could weave life with wonder and it was impossible to escape the magic.

She was there for my daughter during a particularly difficult time in her life when I could not be. I will be forever grateful for the capacity she had to care for and protect those people fortunate enough to be in her circle. Her heart was endless.

I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.

That was one of her favorite ways to end a conversation. I still have a few recordings of her voice on my old phone and also on my old answering machine. Even when her situation was so dire, she had a cheerfulness in her voice that made you feel like things would be okay.

More than a sister, she was the best friend you could ever want but not only to me. She had the ability to listen, laugh, advise, but most of all ‘just be’ when it was important to find your own way. If you were her friend, you were a friend for life.

We speak of her often, missing the fullness she brought to our lives. In this way she still lives. Her presence will always be felt in the hearts of those who loved her. We miss her presence in our lives. We are all a little afloat without her here to keep us grounded.

Happy birthday, Sis. 💜💜💜

Happy Pandemic Birthday to Me

Candles at my age are a fire hazard. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.

My husband gave me the bad news at midnight last night. 😂 I’m now a year older. We always joke about him being older, but it’s only by a few moths. This morning I was thinking that both our mothers’ pregnancies would have overlapped by a few months. He the oldest in his family and me the youngest. My mother wanted six children, but the doctor told her I should be the last and she listened having a tubal ligation after I was born.

I thought I would take a look back and just see what was happening the year I was born. From Wikipedia:

• 1954 – The Tournament of Roses Parade becomes the first event nationally televised in color
• 1954 – Detonation of “Bravo”, a 15 megaton Hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll. 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki weapons, it vapourised three islands, displaced the islanders and caused long lasting contamination.
• 1954 – Joseph McCarthy discredited in Army-McCarthy hearings
• 1954 – Censure or formal disapproval on Senator Joseph McCarthy after the Army-McCarthy hearings. He died three years later in 1957.
• 1954 – President Eisenhower proposes the Domino Theory: If South Vietnam fell to communism, so too would all nations of Southeast Asia, and eventually worldwide.
• 1954 – First Indochina War ends after the U.S. kept sending aid to the French. France was defeated by Ho Chi Minh and his army at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
• 1954 – The CIA overthrows Guatemala’s president Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán (Operation PBSUCCESS)
• 1954 – Saint Lawrence Seaway ACTH, permitting the construction of the system of locks, canals and channels that permits ocean-going vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the North American Great Lakes, is approved
• 1954 – Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark decision of the Supreme Court, declares state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students and denying black children equal educational opportunities unconstitutional
• 1954 – The U.S. becomes a member of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (or SEATO) alliance
• 1954 – Geneva Conference. U.S. rejects the French decision to recognize Communist control of North Vietnam. U.S. increases aid to South Vietnam.
• 1954 – The People’s Republic of China lays siege on Quemoy and Matsu Islands; Eisenhower sends in Navy to demonstrate an invasion of Taiwan would not be permitted
• 1954 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at an all-time high of 382.74, the first time the Dow has surpassed its peak level reached just before the Wall Street Crash of 1929
• 1954 – NBC airs The Tonight Show, the first late-night talk show, originally hosted by Steve Allen
• 1954 – The Democrats retake both houses of Congress in the Midterms. Will keep the Senate until 1981 and the House until 1994.

Here’s a screen shot of a North Carolina newspaper on the day I was born. Not where I lived then or now, but interesting just the same. Of course, perusing the papers also reminded me of the state of civil rights at the time – and in some places today, we seemed to have regressed. From Chronicling America:

I just received a video call from my daughter’s family as they sang happy birthday to me. It was so sweet. My almost three year old granddaughter and I have learned to “play” virtually, so it was quite a lively call.

Hubby cooked and cleaned the kitchen all day on Mother’s Day. We have a few of his fancy high-end pancakes left over that we will warm up for breakfast. No big plans here, so just so grateful for the blessing of another year.