April Fools Day! The perfect birthday for me!

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I was told that entered this world about this time of day (As I write this) 73 years ago.

My family was never normal. My grandfather served in the Calvary under Pershing chasing Pancho Villa. My dad dropped out of high school to join the army during WWII, serving in the 17th Airborne participating in the last parachute assault of the war in March 1945. When he came home on leave before shipping to Europe, he took my mom out for a going away date. As the 2nd youngest of 13 kids to a Pennsylvania Coal Cracker she had ben raised since age 2 by her older sister. My aunt didn't approve of her oft profane and beer loving date so forbid it. Mom locked herself in her bedroom, climbed out on the porch roof and shinnied down the porch post. Upon returning home he helped her shinny up the post.

Needless to say her sister was not happy when my mom had to drop out of high school to have my older brother in January 1945. When he arrived home they didn't immediately marry but waited another 6 months to move into a slightly modernized log cabin on my Grandfather's farm. I had an older sister born in 1947 who drowned in the springhouse in 1948. She and my brother were napping on the 2nd floor while mom was in the kitchen but sis toddled outside and history happened. Mom never forgave herself.

They stayed on the farm. My dad was a mechanic and when he returned home he helped with the farm. Mom went into labor with me and rushed outside the house. The cabin was at the head of a valley and the fields an the hillsides. Dad was plowing the fields and mom tried to flag him down. He saw her and waved back... then kept on plowing. She sent my 6 year older brother down the lane to the farmhouse, half a mile away.

My parents made it the 13 miles to the hospital but I was impatient and thus born on a litter in the elevator.

They bought land and built a new house that summer. My mother doted on me to make up for my deceased sister. There are pictures of me with thick curly hair and decidedly non masculine outfits.

Three and a half years later, another sister was born. Suddenly I was relegated to boyhood. It was not a pleasant time. I'm quite convinced my TG tendencies were developed in my toddler years.

I always relished by birthday, and I've often said it gives me an excuse for my 'excentrisities'. I've been widowed for 14 years so have been able to indulge a bit. Since my favorite color is green, I decided 10 years ago my wardrobe would be all green, I don't give a damn what others think.

I buy tan suede shoes and dye them wit green shoe dye. I buy white underwear and socks which I dye green. I don't have to worry about sorting laundry, and buy a dozen identical pairs of socks at a time, dye them, and no longer need to sort or match socks. If one gets a hole, TRASH. When I can't make it through it week, time for new socks!

As I age, I discover I really don't give a damn what others think and do what I want when I want... sigh, if only I had a bit more liquidity...But I live well and am happy and contented with my life as it is, accepting my TG side would never make it as a female and rather then let that frustrate me, I my stories let me live as the girl I wished to be,

So here's a wish that everyone may indulge their whims on April Fools day!

Comments

Happy birthday!

Andrea Lena's picture

Mid-Century Classic!

  

To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Andrea Lena

A very happy birthday to you!

Emma Anne Tate's picture

What a wonderful story! It’s funny, it sounds to my ears more like a tale from the 1920s than the 1940s . . . The farm and the disapproving granny and the connection to General Pershing’s expedition. Well, the earlier of his expeditions. . . . But that’s America, right? The family farms are still there, it’s just that so few people grow up with that experience now. Forty percent of the population still lived on farms in 1900; now, it’s two percent. But it was still your world, and here you are, a mere 73!

Warmest wishes for a lovely birthday evening. Thank you for sharing it with your family here. :)

Emma

I have a friend whose birthday is today

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

26 years ago today, wife threw a big party and invite about 30 people to his 50th birthday party. There were the usual digs at being 50. Black balloons and over the hill cards.

The party went well and we were all enjoying ourselves eating cake when his wife announced, "April Fools... it's only his 49th birthday."

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt