Nine Twenty-Seven Sixty-Seven

• 12 oz. Dick's IPA - home
  
• 3 pints Bud Light - Emerald Downs
• 1 pint Widmer Hefeweizen - Emerald Downs
• 1 bottle PBR - Vermillion

Forty-one years ago my mom went into labor early in the morning on the 27th. I was two weeks earlier than expected and my dad was in Walla Walla for a work project, so mom had to have a neighbor (whom she didn't know too well) drive her to Lakewood General. She was surrounded by new people, in a new city, with a new doctor. At around 11:00 am, I was born - her first. Mom was 22 years old. It was difficult to contact my dad at the time because he was working "in the field". That is, he was in the Walla Walla countryside, sleeping in a truck with his other work partners, so he didn't know he had a baby boy until the next day, the 28th.

Witnessing (and participating) in the birth of London, and knowing what an emotional and painful and exciting process it is, I think about my mom in a hospital new to her (they had moved up from California just months before), lonely without her new husband, and going through the birthing process. I can't imagine how she felt having to ask her neighbor to drive her to the hospital and asking her to sit with her while in labor. There were no relatives nor friends to be with her in her room. There was no way she could contact my dad and I wonder if she was able to call her parents in California. I wonder how she felt when she found out it was boy. I wonder how long she was in labor. I wonder what she was thinking as she lay in her bed, knowing she had just had a son. I wonder if she had wanted a girl. I wonder how she got home. I wonder...?

***************************************************

I think birthdays get better as I get older. I have such great memories from my 40th birthday party last year. When I was younger, I had always looked forward to turning 40; I mean, I wasn't in a rush, but I was never hesitant about it either. I hadn't planned on doing anything for my birthday this year, but the planning just sort of happened. At one point I spontaneously decided that I wanted to have some type of get together. I guess it can seem a little self-important to announce, "It's my birthday and I want you to come!" but that's not the way I think of it. As I get older I realize how much my friends mean to me and how much happiness they provide in my life. Throwing a birthday get together is my way of appreciating the friends in my life.

***************************************************

This was the first year in eleven that I wasn't teaching school on my birthday. Students' exuberant 8:22 am voices greeting me with "Happy Birthday Mr. Barker!!!", sometimes leaving a gift on my desk, or in my hand, made me feel special. "How old are you?" "What are you doing today?" "What did you get for your birthday?" are questions of the day. Also, for the past six years, there has always been a 4th grade student with whom I share a birthday. I love sharing their birthday through their eyes. It almost makes me feel like I'm ten again. :)