Paul's Birthday Celebrations

Paul had an important birthday on Sunday. He felt about as blue about turning 60 as I felt in November when I passed this barrier. I wanted to launch some kind of celebration for him, something that he would feel comfortable about. I invited Peter, Kortney and Eleanor, Jono and Erika and my parents and brother and his son to join us for dinner, and then I tried to think of some gifts that would be interesting to him. We had a conversation the evening before his birthday where he asked if I had gotten him some item (this was after I had completed my shopping… and I said—“you have never even mentioned wanting this!” --Mostly, when Paul wants something he just buys it—so I am left primarily with buying gifts for him that I think that he might like—or things that I want him to have, or things that will just end up in the garbage bin….). Anyway, I wanted to find some gift giving idea that was more than just regular, because after all this was his 60th birthday. 60 is a special birthday, and I wanted to give something to Paul that showed I had put some thought into it. So I did what any 21st century wife might do—I looked at gift suggestions on the internet and I came across a website of a woman whose father-in-law was turning 60 and she and her husband wanted to do something a little different—so I used her idea and modified it for Paul. Their idea that it would be cool to investigate the headlines of 1953 (the year the birthday person was born) and link those headlines up with some appropriate and nice presents. I thought it was a great idea and so I found a website with the major, worldwide events of 1955—Paul’s year of birth. After some research, and reading a LOT of random facts-- I picked out seven events that I thought I could use to associate with seven gifts. As I looked through all (more than 100) events for that year on the website, I kept brainstorming presents they could link to that I thought Paul might like. I enlisted Erika and bounced ideas off her and listened to her suggestions. I wrote the headlines down on tags that looked like luggage tags with some little explanations that explained the relationship of the headline to the gift on the reverse side. After that, I headed off shopping with a VERY specific shopping list to get the gifts to match the headlines... • MARCH 1955: A young Jim Henson builds the first version of Kermit the Frog. March 29, 2015--You may think of Kermit as a plushy stuffed animal—here is another plushy item to comfort you. (Gift was a new bed pillow.) • April 12, 1955: The Salk polio vaccine, having passed large-scale trials earlier in the United States, receives full approval by the Food and Drug Administration. March 29, 2015--Vaccinations are just one way to promote good health and it is important to look for many ways to protect ourselves. (New farm and work gloves) • July 18, 1955: Disneyland opens to the public in Anaheim, California. March 29, 2015--From the Matterhorn, to Mickey Mouse—Walt Disney made his mark, did you know that The Mickey Mouse Club also started in 1955 and that Lady and the Tramp was released? (Disney licensed candy and Tobleron's with Matterhorn logo.) • July 18, 1955: The first nuclear-generated electrical power is sold commercially, partially powering the town of Arco, Idaho. March 29, 2015--Nuclear generated electricity started in Idaho—and there are other things that remind us of our Idahoan Heritage. (Potato chips, instant potatoes and Idaho Spud) • August 27, 1955: First edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published, in London. March 29, 2015--Many people find the Guinness Book of World Records fascinating reading—others choose to read drivel, nonsense, and twaddle. Here is thinking of you-- (Bathroom reader-joke book) • September 10, 1955: The long-running program Gunsmoke debuts on the CBS-TV network. March 29, 2015--There may not be any smoke involved in this gift, but there will definitely be a gun. (Gift certificate for a new Framing Nail Gun) • December 1, 1955: In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger and is arrested, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. March 29, 2015--In Sandy, Utah, Paul Kern is given a special seat—to be used on the Petersboro property, leading to restful reflection during barn building. (New folding camp chair) On Sunday, everyone arrived for dinner at about 6:00 p.m. Erika and Jono now come with their dog, Ollie, who is just as cute as can be. We all adore him. And he is a very sweet, mellow, dog—who will be huge sometime in the future, but is still a medium sized dog now—much bigger than when they got him. We had appetizers and dinner to much jolly laughter and visiting. When we finished dinner, but before the birthday cake and ice cream dessert--- we retired to the living room where I had set up a gift station. The gifts that others had brought and the pile of seven gifts from me—were set up in front of the fireplace door in the living room. From the mantle, I hung a large paper on which I had copied a poem that Erika and I worked on together. We all read it aloud as a chorus-- 60 years since he arrived Thought we’d go back to ’55. To see what happened in the year That our Paul Reinhold did appear. The world was changing, quick and fast And Paul, he sure would see it pass New inventions; all things change! At times it must’ve seemed quite strange So back we’ll go-and we’ll revive, Some gems from 1955. And then we began to open the gifts—it was fun and interesting to think about the things that happened in 1955. And some among us remembered details about events and ideas that occurred to them as we discussed various things. Paul reminisced a little about his life experiences. It was a good time. I don’t know that Paul “loved” every gift, but I think he knew that I had put some thought and effort into them, and so that was a good thing. The children had also gotten him interesting and thoughtful gifts so it was a well-rounded evening. Opening gifts turned out to be quite fun and entertaining for everyone. I got one more thing for him that wasn’t a part of the 1955 series. When we moved back to Utah from Europe, as I bought white shirts for Paul, I had the cuffs monogrammed. I had been doing this for years and a couple of years ago, I stopped buying them from the company that I had been ordering them from and so I stopped having them monogrammed. In all these 17 years, no one had made any comment on them—and so it didn’t seem a big deal to stop. Then suddenly this year in about a month’s time two different and quite disparate people commented on one of the shirts still in rotation that was monogrammed—Paul report this to me, and I thought maybe I should go back to the monogramming again. So I did buy him four new, white shirts with monogrammed cuffs. (Paul actually thinks white work shirts are a very poor birthday gift—but these are quite nice shirts, I am using a new, and better shirt company now and they do a super job.) After the gift extravaganza, we went back to the dining table for cake and ice cream. I made a chocolate brownie tort for his cake. It was a Rachel Ray recipe that I modified to be gluten free and I wasn’t sure how well it would work, but it turned out very rich and chocolaty and everyone liked it very much, especially nice with ice cream. So generally, it was a jolly evening with lots of activity and a house full of people and a celebratory atmosphere. Happy Birthday to Paul!! We are gearing up for a big Saturday in Petersboro, Paul has engaged an older woman to help him on Saturday—and hopes with her help to get five beams in place. It will be a busy Saturday, but real progress will be possible with the two of us working together. We are looking forward to our trip to Loveland the next weekend.