The Last Birthday Party

Kevin, Cathy, Me, Sister Jean, Frank, Kirby and Keith

Woo-hoo! A party!
I was turning seven, these might be the happiest pictures of me as a child in existence. We had quite a few of the neighborhood kids there, enough so that my mother bowed out of the preparations, letting my father cater the whole affair—cake and ice cream. Lots of ice cream.


Frank, Cathy, Kevin, Me, Kirby, Jeannie, Delroy, Arlen (standing)

If Arlen doesn’t look so happy, it may be due to the fact his family had never had ice cream (they might not have had a refrigerator, there were still ice-boxes in use then) and my dad let him eat as much as he wanted. Arlen ended up getting his stomach pumped.

That was the last birthday party I ever had.