Today we went to a birthday party for Zoe who is 4 years old today. They came to visit me and we had cake and ice cream. And they were so good .

Apparently we did not celebrate birthdays to the point that I would remember. We had very few birthday parties. I remember maybe one or two when I was older and my sister could take over. We did get birthday presents, you know the kinds of things you would ask for. I remember getting clothes, something special, dressy kind of clothes. I think we were overly reserved about birthdays. When I was little I would buy my grandma a dust cap, the kind of pretty caps that she would wear when she did her housecleaning. And she would always give us homemade pajamas or nighties. She would also make nice food. She always had a room full of cloth which was open to us to use to make doll clothes and stuff. I remeber giving my mother a framed picture when I was a little bit older which she loved and hung on the wall. I would usually give my father neckties and later on a new shirt.

I do remember celebrating Christmas. My parents behind the bedroom doors would be wrapping packages and we would be trying to peak around the door. We celebrated Christmas quite well. My big brother hung his stocking up but my sister and I would have to bring it up to him in bed because he was too lazy to get up. He had the big back room and he would sit there like a king while I would bring his eggnog up to him. Santa Clause would bring us socks - he was very pactical. In my brother's case he would bring magazines, Scientific America. We would also get toys, my favorite was the thing that ran like a truck on a track, you could fill it with sand because it's mechanism would tow it up the hill and dump it. It was wonderful. Christmas was fine. We got up early, early, early in the morning. Once my brother built and shot off a bomb in the back yard on Christmas. Very often my father and I would go to midnight service. My mother was probably too damned tired from cooking or closeted in her bedroom wrapping packages. My dad was always right there preparing the holiday meals and he was damned good at it. That's where he really helped out my mom. I think by the time I arrived my mother wanted to do her thing and get out of the house. She belonged to a lot of clubs and liked to take courses which is probably why I spent so much time with my father. I remember how on Saturdays my mother would be home doing the heavy housework and I would be in Boston with my father.