 |
| Myrna's Birthday - Myrna 3rd from right, Sue far right |
Do you remember...?
Do you remember when birthday parties were just a few close friends?
When Moms simply served hot dogs, baked beans, potato chips (a treat), and cake and ice cream??
When presents were maybe a book or inexpensive toy?
When no one dreamed of going to a restaurant or mall for a party...nobody hired clowns, balloon playgrounds, or had "princess parties"......
Everyone's birthday party was similar? No one tried to "top" anyone else?
Not only do I remember, I wish we were still living in those times! Happy days!
ReplyDeleteOh, I do remember as a young teenager we could take a friend or two to the local movie theater instead of a party and maybe even instead of a present. That was fun as we went at night and thought we were so grownup.
DeleteAll our birthdays were simply family dinners. Only once did I have a party, and that was a surprise party my married sister threw for me when I turned 17. I raised our children the same way. Only one party with friends during their growing up years. They all turned out great!
ReplyDeleteI remember we celebrated all the cousin's birthdays on my mom's side, individually. The mother of the birthday person would make a cake, and one of my aunts would also make her famous angel food cake with coconut frosting. We would have a simple lunch, play all together, the birthday kid would open gifts and have the cakes and ice cream, sometimes homemade ice cream. Your photo could be a photo from my childhood.
ReplyDeleteI sure do remember birthday parties like that. I was allowed to invite maybe four other girls. I also remember going to the party of a girl I didn't know very well (she was the cousin of a cousin of mine, on the other side of the family) and there were about 15 of us there. I don't have fond memories of it because there was too much of a "crowd" and the birthday girl ended up crying because of too much hullabaloo! (We should have learned something from that for future years, shouldn't we?)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teenager, there were about 7 of us who hung out together. For each girl's birthday, the six of us each pitched in about 50 cents to a dollar and we went enmasse (without the birthday girl, of course) to a clothing store and bought a gift from all of us. I can still see the blue, red and white plaid skirt I received onr year. Oh, the memories you evoke with these posts! :o)
Happy Birthday! Slumber parties were a treat for birthdays starting at about 4th grade in my group. We had so much fun playing board games. I remember the silly little games we would play too, trying to walk with an apple between our knees, musical chairs, or throwing a clothes pin into a mason jar. The gifts we gave and recieved didnt break the bank either. And it was nice to have a homemade cake made by mom. --Julie A
ReplyDeleteAmazing isn't it that we all did just fine without a blowout party! Life really was simpler when it wasn't all about the kids.
ReplyDeleteHappy late birthday. I hope you had a very good one.
ReplyDeleteI had only one birthday party as I recall, for my tenth. Three friends came; we played games on the lawn and had cake and I expect I got over-excited and giggly. I still have the book that one of the friends brought me.
ReplyDeleteI also recall a couple of parties I attended - playing "pin the tail on the donkey" at one; the other was a picnic in a local park, I was only four but I still remember the pale blue sugar roses on the birthday girl's cake. And I think we made daisy chains.
Simple pleasures.
[Valerie, NZ]
Yes, makes you wonder what happened to just enjoying the simple things. Nowdays it seems things are so overblown and things like a simple birthday become a production. Ten year old girls are supposed to be giggly!
DeleteI was never allowed to have a birthday party at home; the most I could have was a single friend sleeping over. I always felt the lack terribly. :^(
ReplyDeleteBut a friend's moms threw the most memorable birthday parties for her kids. Lunch was always hot dogs and potato chips and your choice of SODA (so fancy!). Mrs H. dreamed up lots of fun games (who could eat a soda cracker and be the first to whistle, dropping clothes pins into mason jars, pin the mustache on the movie star, be the first to blow a 5-inch bubble with a piece of Bazooka bubble gum (that stuff was so hard to get going!), potato sack race (with real burlap potato sacks), 3-legged race, wheelbarrow race, eating marshmallows on a string with your hands behind your back. And she had a prize for each game! At the end of the games we would all get a kazoo. Then we would play "Happy Birthday" as the cake was brought out. Her mom made such beautiful, fancy layer cakes crammed with frosting. I always felt so lucky to be invited to her party each year.
When I turned 16, I decided I had quite enough of the "no birthday parties!" rule. My older brother (we were just shy of Irish twins) and I threw ourselves a joint birthday party one night at the old gravel pit that featured hamburgers, grilled corn on the cob, a few kegs, a huge bonfire, and a lively game of midnight "Hide and Go Seek" in the nearby cornfields. The party lasted until dawn--it was just the best time ever! It sure made up for those years of never having a party of my own. ;^)