Birthday Blessings and Fun

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 17 Comments

Eventually you reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it. Will Rogers

My husband’s birthday is today. He’s clocked a few years and hopes to add on more.   Not too long ago we celebrated our 50th anniversary. This is our picture from the party the kids had for us. The other picture is us more than fifty years ago while I was in high school and he was in college. We were decked out for my junior prom in a dress I made. Neither of us were dancers, but we went to enjoy the festivities. And we have this picture to remember.

We married a year after this and started our family. We were very young, but we were fortunate to have supportive families. Darrell worked at a factory for a short time and hated it. Then he farmed with my dad for some more years. We never had much money, but we never went hungry or weren’t able to have the things we really needed. The kids grew and thrived on country life. Eventually Darrell got a job with the state government. Still not much money. And we still farmed. We were able to buy our own farm and build a house that kept the wind out. We had heat that radiated down from the ceiling instead of from a wood stove. And I missed the wood stove. Eventually we added on a chimney and put one of those wood stoves back in the basement to heat the house. Now we’re back to the automatic heat but I did enjoy that wood stove warmth for many years.

I’ve been blessed with a Christian husband who loves the Lord and his family. He’s been singing Southern Gospel music for over forty years with various quartets. And he is still singing bass with the Patriot Quartet. He’s retired now even from farming. But one of the things he likes is smiling. So, in honor of him, here are some smiles about getting older.

You’re getting old when —

* You know you’re getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.

 * You know you’re growing old when you’re finally able to resist temptation, but it doesn’t come around much anymore.

 * You know you’re growing old when you go shopping for a motorcycle and everybody in the store bursts out laughing.

~You know you’re getting old when all the names in your black book have M.D. after them. (Harrison Ford)

You’re Over the Hill When …

    ♦ You’re over the hill when by the time opportunity knocks, you have your hearing aid turned off.

  ♦ You’re over the hill when the happy hour is a nap. 

  ♦ You’re over the hill when styles come back for the second time and you still have some left from the first time.

   ♦ You’re over the hill when you know your way around but you don’t feel like going.

   ♦ You’re over the hill when everything starts to click: your elbows, knees, and neck.

I must be getting absentminded. Whenever I complain that things aren’t what they used to be, I always forget to include myself. – George Burns

And now the picture I promised. Darrell asked me to take this one time when we were dogsitting my daughter-in-law’s English Mastiff. He wanted to see which one of them was biggest. 🙂  Although I sometimes accuse Darrell of being grouchy, the truth is it’s good to be married to a man who likes to laugh and can see the funny in things.

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.  ~ Mark Twain

 

Do you like celebrating birthdays? I sometimes tell people to keep celebrating. Just stop bothering to count. As always, thanks for reading.

Comments 17

  1. Oh goodness you were really blessed when you married that is wonderful as he is a keeper and who can say that is best thing is that smile. If my husband smiled i would be so happy but at 60 he brings so much baggage from work then he starts about something in the house. Big hugs to your wonderful hubby I will always think of him when reading my bible every day. You two make a wonderful couple !

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  2. Happ Birthday, Darrell!!! I’m sorry I’m a day late, but I don’t always have time, or take the time to read my emails. I love Gospel music! I’m going to see if I can find some songs on U tube or perhaps get Alexa to play a few. Time does take its toll but we’re both blessed each time we’re able to celebrate another year. We celebrate our 60th anniversary in August and on the same day my husband’s 80th. I follow soon after. 😊
    Love your dress, Ann! You did a beautiful job! 😊

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      How neat that you married on your husband’s birthday. He knew how to pick the best birthday gift. 🙂 Darrell thanks you for the birthday wishes. At our age, wishes that come along anytime are good. I think we should celebrate a new year coming our way all month. 🙂 If you want to try to listen to some of the Patriots’ music you can check out their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/The-Patriot-Quartet-284966514863208/ or here’s a link to a YouTube video from a few years ago when they had a different tenor than they do now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omu23Ut2sTQ

      1. Thank you, Ann!!! It’s so nice of you to take the time out of your busy schedule to reply to each comment you receive. I’m going to listen to the Patriots on my iPad. How’s your newest novel coming? At last reading you were still trimming. 😊

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  3. Thank you for making me smile. I enjoyed reading this so much. My dad would tell me keep smiling and keep dialing papa’s hotline. I miss calling him everyday since he went to heaven in November. Have a blessed day.

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      Glad the post brought you a smile or two, Lucy. Condolences for the loss of your father. Sweet that you called him every day. I’m sure that made him so happy. And if you could hear him from heaven, he’d be telling you and all of us to keep smiling now and dialing up the Lord’s prayer hotline.

  4. While the photo of you and your husband-to-be at the time of the prom is sweet as is the one of you two celebrating your 50th wedding anniversary, the one of your husband and the mastiff is adorable. A sense of humor acts like glue in a marriage relationship. How precious!

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      Right, Suzanne. Me, I’d have never been willing to take that picture of myself. I prefer people to assume the Mastiff is biggest, and he is bigger than I am. But the picture was all Darrell’s idea. He did think it was funny.

  5. Your husband looks just like a “good ol quartet bass”! So big, and I’ll bet he’s got a booming bass voice! I’ve followed Southern Gospel quartets for many years (since the early ’60s) but they seldom come clear out to Arizona any more, so I miss that music. CDs are good but there’s nothing like a “live concert”. Darrell – keep on singing – that’s the best music there is!

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  6. Delightful peek into your past. Thank you for sharing. As far as the question of which is bigger—the dog or the man? I think it’s a tie.

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      Glad you enjoyed my back in time memories, Fern. It’s hard to think about how long ago my husband and I met. The years have sped by. The man does out weight the dog, but then nobody measures out his kibble each day to make sure he keeps his weight down. Dogs generally only get what an owner dishes out to them. 🙂

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