Borange

Bro #1's fifth birthday party. (I am three years old here.) He always had cool cakes because his birthday is the Fourth of July: firecrackers, Uncle Sam, sparklers, the U.S. flag. We had a big L-shaped screened porch at the Old House and it was several degrees cooler out there.

We were usually shirtless at his parties, and that's probably how we began the tradition of adding, "without a shirt!" at the end of the Happy Birthday song. I didn't know that for many years; I thought everybody sang, "without a shirt!"



Still three here. We owned this nifty two-toned pedal car for just a couple of years. I remember that the pedals went back and forth, instead of around a spindle like a tricycle. If you didn't start just right, you went backwards instead of forwards. I went backwards most of the time.

That's probably a good thing. In this age before helmets and seat belts, our rather steep driveway emptied into the street. I remember strapping my Barbie into the old-fashioned roller skate -- the metal kind that clamped on your shoe and tightened with a skate key -- and sending her down that driveway for a death-defying thrill ride. Good for Barbies, bad for three-year olds.