Birthday Parties

Gordon and Laura's birthdays are only four days apart. Apparently I wanted to get it all over at once, because in 1983, we had both of their birthday parties on August 25.

Laura, who was turning four, had her party first. Her guests were Summer and Mandy Henderson, Rachel and Jennifer Bradshaw, and Karren and Gordon, of course. The theme was Sesame Street, but apparently we didn't have to adhere to that too closely, because they watched Winnie-the-Pooh for starters. Then do-it-yourself sundaes, and then cupcakes and punch. Her gifts included a pony from Summer (probably a My Little Pony), a puzzle from Mandy, a doll from Rachel and a writing pad from Summer Mabry, who was invited but could not come. And her cousin Jesse gave her a cape--the famed super-hero cape mentioned in the Underoo post.

Gordon, who would soon be six, had a Return-of-the-Jedi party. The party was much like Laura's, only not Winnie-the-Pooh--who knows what they watched? Sundaes, and then presents. Mark Mabry gave him Return of the Jedi school tools - scissors, eraser, pencil sharpener, and bag. Jared Henderson brought two Star Wars figures. Doug Fielding brought a Return of the Jedi book and tape set. Tally Gooch gave him a Disney book. (For some reason, Gordon insisted on inviting Tally Gooch. She was the only girl on the guest list. She was a cute little blonde--maybe that had something to do with it.) Aaron Manning gave him a pencil sharpener. Davy and Graham Johnson brought a Construx set. Jesse, Owens and Stefan brought a superhero cape. The cupcakes and punch were the final activity.

Looking back, these were pretty low-key parties. I was always a big fan of keeping it simple; in later years, after the pool, we had a series of swimming parties. The guests swim, they watch a movie or cartoons or something, they have hot dogs or pizza, they open presents, they have cake & ice cream, they get a goodie bag and go home. Two to three hours, depending on how long the movie was, and we were done. The pool party was a birthday staple for years.

There were exceptions, of course. Karren, whose February 12 birthday made a swimming party impractical, had lots of Valentine-themed parties. And we had a pig party for Allison one year, with pig noses and pig games and spaghetti with no utensils.

But no clowns, no ponies. And certainly no Chuck E. Cheese.