Tomorrow is my birthday, and I won’t be doing anything too special. I have planned a quasi-reunion for later in the year, as most of my high school classmates are turning 55 this year, so I thought it would be fun to have a big party, but that’s in September and, honestly, I don’t know how many people are coming. Whatever. The point is, I’m not doing anything particularly interesting on the day, nor did I do anything this past weekend or next weekend. I’m not a big celebrater of birthdays — it’s not that I hate them and try to ignore them, I just don’t think it’s that noteworthy. Still, I have had some fun birthdays, so my Question is: What’s the favorite one you’ve celebrated?
I have three that stand out for me. On 19 May 1989 I turned 18. Sure, your 18th birthday is a special one, but mine happened to coincide with the night of my senior prom, which was neat. Unlike so many nerds of fact and fiction, I had a girlfriend, whom I had been dating since about October of the previous year, and we went together with some other friends. We rented a limo and had a nice time, despite the fact that the “official song” of the prom was a goddamned Richard Marx song (probably “Right Here Waiting,” which came out about the same time). It was a fun night. Here we are, in all our late 1980s glory!
The next good one, perhaps predictably, was my 21st, but not for the reasons you might think. Yes, I went out drinking, but I was studying in Australia at the time, so going out to bars was not a new thing. It was the Australia part that made it excellent, of course. My friends and I didn’t do anything too spectacular — we went to Pizza Hut! — but we did end up at a bar right across from the University of Melbourne, Naughtons on Royal Parade, which is, excellently enough, still there. I received a free pitcher of beer, which I was obligated to chug. If I tried that today, I think I would die.
Finally, the third “favorite” birthday was my 40th, in 2011. I happened to be in Pennsylvania for 7 weeks while my daughter was at a facility in Bethlehem, as we were trying to get her to eat more without resulting to putting a g-tube in her stomach (it didn’t work, and in January 2012, she got herself a tube!). It was an inpatient facility, so I stayed with my parents for that time, leaving my poor wife and young daughter (she was 5 at the time) alone in Arizona, which my wife still hasn’t forgiven me for. As it was an inpatient facility and they discouraged frequent visits, I had a lot of time to do nuthin’, so I hung out with my friends from high school a lot. On 20 May (the 19th was a Thursday), we went out to a restaurent in Doylestown and had a nice time. I took Slim Jims to give out to everyone because the Macho Man, Randy Savage, had died that morning. The guy who sat me saw them and said, “Are those for the Macho Man?” I didn’t take too many pictures, but here’s one of me with a friend’s girlfriend:
So those are my favorite birthdays. I suppose if I lived near family and friends I’d have more memorable ones, but whatever. I like hanging out with my wife and maybe going out to dinner every few years. Still, it’s fun to let loose every once in a while. Maybe the thing I’m doing in September will be memorable, even the birthday part of it is just an excuse.
What’s your favorite birthday? Was it a “milestone” one, or just a random one that happened to be memorable? Let us know!
Damn, I can’t even remember my 18th or my 21st if it comes to that
Well they’re probably not your favorites, then! 🙂
My memory for this kind of thing is very poor. One year I took the Yuengling tour.
I do remember the Macho Man, though– I think I was at a friend’s wedding that weekend.
These days, my birthday coincides with the opening date of my favorite brewery– in Bethlehem, coincidentally– and so you can usually find me there.
My wife once took the Yuengling tour. Of course, she used to play in the mansion when she was child, so she’s much cooler than I am!
Why is your favorite brewery closed part of the year, until your birthday? Intriguing …
I should say, the anniversary of when they originally opened.
Somewhere I have a poster autographed by ol’ Dick Yuengling himself…
Oh, whoops, I get it now. That’s a fun way to celebrate!
I share a birthday (10 years apart) with The Macho Man. He and his family’s little outlaw promotion, International Championship Wrestling, was what made a pro wrestling fan of me, despite some previous exposure to Dick the Bruiser’s Indianapolis territory, the WWA (if you saw it, you’d understand the indifference, after Bobby Heenan had left it for greener pastures).
My favorite would probably be my 15th, in 1981. Nothing truly special about it, except it was special in its simplicity. I was past the age of parties and money was a bit tight, in those days (actually, most days, really, outside of a few financially beneficial years). My dad, who did most of the cooking, made me my favorite spaghetti dinner and a chocolate cake and let me pick out a movie to see. So, he and I went to see Time Bandits, which was more up my alley than his, as a Monty Python fan, but he enjoyed it quite a bit. No real frills, just a really nice time with my dad, on my birthday. Similarly, I think it was my 18th birthday that we celebrated, just the two of us. I was in my freshman year of college (my birthday is in November, so I was 17 when I graduated high school and started college, at the end of the summer) and my dad came over to Champaign (Univ of Illinois, also his alma mater) and we went out for pizza. Might have been the following year; my memory is hazy.
If you do the math, this year, it is 60. I couldn’t fathom being 60, when I turned 15. Hell, I couldn’t fathom it when I hit 40.
That’s very nice, Jeff. And Time Bandits is, of course, awesome.
We went to Madrid to celebrate my 60th birthday with our concert friends from Spain.
After a nice meal and some beers we went to a record store where Sharon van den Adel from Within Temptation. My friend wanted to have his album signed. Sharon was surprised to have a talk in Dutch over there. It was a fantastic ending of my birthday.
See? That’s a very keen birthday. Sounds groovy!
my happiest birthdays were probably in my childhood when we had parties but none really stick in my memory
Most memorable was in 1987 when my present from my brother was a ticket to a Genesis concert in Wembley (shortly after the birthday)