December Birthdays

Balsa wood airplanes and a bow with rubber suction-cup arrows; it didn’t take much to make this four-year-old happy on his birthday in 1951. Mom and Pop and my three older siblings had traversed the Great Depression and the rations of the Second World War before I was born on a hot July day. Disposable income was a foolish concept. Frugal is too kind of a descriptor.?

Aw, with each successive birthday, anticipation grew. There is nothing like cakes, candles, and lots of special attention to make a kid feel important. One day a year, the whole family focuses on you.

Bring on the Happy! Even grumpy old men can not suppress a grin in the glow of candles setting off the smoke alarm. “Who wants cake!”

I was the lucky one born one week after the 4th of July.? I didn't have to share the attention with anyone. My siblings Delta, Beverly, and Jim had birthdays late in the calendar year. Besides they were all old. I mean really old, 10, 13, and 15 years older than me. They claimed as the baby of the family, I had it easy and was spoiled.

Hey, is it my fault grandmas, grandpas, uncles, and aunts tend to shower the adorable youngest with all kinds of goodies? I guess it did get a little out of hand. Mom and Dad had to declare a moratorium and a limit to stuff the old folks would bring me, especially the candy. It is hard to coral a hyperactive kid with a sugar buzz. I don't want to brag but I was a pretty darn cute youngster. Ugly didn’t happen until later in life.

If July is the luckiest month to be born, then December must be the unluckiest birthdays. Let's face it. No one can compete with the biggest birthday of the year, Christmas. Everyone's attention and budgets get stretched paper-thin.

Our family got hit with a barrage of December birthdays. Mom was born on December 3rd. Judy, my beautiful Minnesota bride, and Jane, my brother Jim’s wife, share the 5th of the month for celebration. Exactly one week before Christmas, April, and Carrie, our twin daughters, made their debut.?

"It is all under control," I declared. In the midst of a blustery Minneapolis snowstorm, I started to pull away from the curb on 40th Avenue. We were off to Abbott Hospital. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Judy managed a smile between the labor pains. In the rearview mirror, I spied the suitcase we had so carefully packed sitting on a snow bank next to the sidewalk.

Two hours later, I started handing out bubble-gum cigars and calling back home to Indiana to share the good news. "They're girls! Two of them! Born two minutes apart." We had Minnesota twins born in the Twin Cities. The nurses presented them to us wrapped in bright red Christmas stockings.?

Yes, right from the get-go, April and Carrie had to share their most important day not only with each other but also with Santa and the baby Jesus. Don’t feel too bad for them. Judy can work magic in the kitchen baking the best birthday cakes ever.

I asked them about their most memorable birthday party. They both recalled the one when Judy made ice cream clowns with the cones on top decorated like clown hats. Their friends made messy scribbles on a big sketchpad. My job was to turn those squiggles into cartoons of puppy dogs, butterflies, and dragons. We always gave it our best shot at making them feel special on their day.

?It was Grandpa Lucas to the rescue with the most memorable presents ever, brand-new matching bicycles. Seems Gramps had no problem with expendable income for his young granddaughters. On her wobbly maiden ride, April yelled, "Don't let go!"

“Too late!” I replied from half a block away.

?Raising kids, you eventually have to let go. But, you cling to the memories forever.

?Even shared birthdays can become special when the whole family helps.

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Story and graphics by Chuck Clore

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