HAPPY BIRTHDAY

This is how I spent every birthday growing up: sharing my special day with my sister. (She is on the right with the chocolate cake, I am on the left with the vanilla cake). We are eleven months apart and when I was young and her birthday came first (March) I was upset and could not understand how, if she was YOUNGER than me, she was able to get a birthday cake FIRST. Confusing to a young child. So my Mom reached a compromise and we shared the day. For YEARS! (I wonder if I always had a vanilla cake? I really like chocolate BETTER!)

It wasn't that I didn't love her; I did. It was just that I wanted my own special day. We were always treated as twins, being born so close together. Those were the days (the fifties) where mothers and daughters wore matching clothes. My Mom used to make herself a skirt and then she would make the two of us each a blouse, or shorts, or a dress: all out of the SAME matching fabric. People on the street used to comment about how cute we looked, all dressed alike. (That is why when I had twins I dressed them completely different even though they were identical.)

Another funny thing: when I was born, my hair was straight. When she was born, her hair was curly. Somewhere along the way when we were very young, we did a complete switch. I ended up with curly hair, she ended up with straight. And by straight I mean STICK straight. My Mom thought that it needed to be permed! Now, you would think that the daughter with the curly hair would not have to have a perm. But no way! Into the tiny perm rods, sitting with that stincking Toni perm solution on my head for what seemed hours, I would go. Can you say: KINKY? Yes! Kinky was the way my hair ended up. My bangs never touched my eyebrows because they were so kinky that they stuck straight out in the air.

Childhood was challenging, that's for sure. Today, my sister lives right next door to me. She has worked and lived in every place that I have all my life. I don't mind it as much now as I used to. Having family close by can have its benefits. But today, I celebrate my 60th birthday all by myself. No sharing cakes this year. I'm sure she is glad that she was born eleven months after me this year! I'm not sure you'd want to celebrate 60 twice. At least we wouldn't have to dress alike and wear perms!