A TRIBUTE TO MY MOM ON APRIL FOOL'S DAY

I will be 55 years old on April 1. Yep, ITS MY BIRTHDAY!

I cant believe I'm that old! I can remember when my mom turned 55 and I was thinking she was about to kick the bucket any time. Mom is going to be 75 on May 13 and she is HOT! She's a firecracker!

So 55 years ago, mom was excited to have her first baby. I was suppose to be boy named Stevie. I weighed 8 lbs and I was breech. I guess when I did finally make my out into the world, my ankles were still wrapped around my head. (That was the last time I could ever assume that position.)
And once in her arms-- I'm sure I was smiling up at mom snickering, "April Fools Day Mom!"

My mom loved playing jokes on all her kids on April Fool's Day. She would yell from the kitchen, "BREAKFAST! My 3 brothers and I would run to the table in anticipation. We knew what was coming and would giggle as we sat down to the predictable meal. It always included salt in the sugar bowl, dribble glasses that held our orange juice/cod liver oil cocktail and the famous slotted spoons that were already placed in the cereal bowls that were filled with milk and cheerios. Next to our bowl of cereal was placed the ever famous sugar cinamon toast that was cut into finger size pieces. The cinamon was replaced with chili powder.

During the entire breakfast, my eyes were fixed on the big silver cake cover that mom had placed in the middle of the table. And every year, I would lift that shinny cover and NOTHING would be there! There was NO cake under that lid. Every year...I bit the line..hook, line and sinker. And when I got home from school, that cake cover was still on the table taunting me. I would slowly lifted the lid and with my head placed on the table I would peeked under the lid when it was just 2" off the table...Mom would pop out from behind the living room wall singing "Happy Birthday" and snapping pictures of me starring at the most awsome cake that she had made for me while I was in school. JUST FOR ME. The problem was... the cake was made out of cardboard and the frosting was crisco and flour. (I'm still smiling when I see that cake in my mind's eye.)

Now dont you all start feeling badly for me.The story gets better.

At the end of the day, after dad came home from work, after dinner was over and the kitchen was cleaned up, mom would tell me to sit at same table and close my eyes. I could hear my brother's giggling behind me and my mom whispering, "shhhhhhh." I heard the match getting lit and could smell the sulfur when she blew it out. Once again my mom's voice but this time it was directed to my dad, "Honey turn off that TV and get in here!" And then her big voice "OPEN YOUR EYES!" The room was dark except for the candles on the cake. The family all joined in to "Happy Birthday" and my brothers would add "you look like monkey and smell like one too!" The cake was chocolate with double chocolate frosting. DELICIOUS.

Mom had her camera glued to her right eye, snapping pictures and laughing. I was doing my best to blow out those candles that would NOT blow out!

Thank you mom for the wonderful birthday memories! I love you too.