When I'm 65

Here I am at one of my early Birthday Celebrations

I turned 65 the other day.  Turned 65……Is it anything like turning a corner or turning gray or turning in circles?  I’m not sure, maybe a little like them all.  When you turn a corner, you could see rare, magical or unusual things. You could turn a corner and see your true love or a homeless man in rags.  One time in high school, my girlfriend Janice and I went to L.A. to visit her aunt.  She lived at the beach so we had a great time.  I met a cute, tall boy on the beach that trip who impressed me enough that I can almost picture his face.  We were due to go home on the bus and Jan’s Aunt dropped us at the station.  For some reason the bus was delayed 2 or 3 hours.  We decided that we would try to find a movie theater.  Well, we walked around the corner and went into a theatre.  It was during the day and the only people there were drunks and other unsavory characters.  We knew it wasn’t the best, but heck, being from South Phoenix, we weren’t too shocked.  Not that we had drunks or movie theaters around the corner in South Phoenix, but it does have its seedy parts.  After the movie we went back to the bus station and were talking to this wonderful black lady cleaning the bathroom.  We told her of our adventure and she was afraid for us.  Almost scolding us like a mother would.  She said that if we had just gone one street the other direction we would have been in a very posh shopping area.  So that’s what I’m saying about turning 65 and turning corners.  You never really know where you are going and never really know what you might be missing if you didn’t experience it.   I know what it feels like to turn gray because I have a few gray hairs among my brown locks.  It has been a gradual thing and not really very noticeable at this time (or I don’t think so).  So I don’t know what it feels like to literally turn gray over night or over a few months which some people seem to do.  But before I turned 65 I was really fighting it.  Like I was kicking and screaming while a tornado hurled me against a brick wall.  I was not very happy about the occasion, but low and behold when the day came, I felt like Dorothy flying through the air, magically, ghost like going through that wall and landing in the Land of Oz.  I was like a queen or the good witch holding court in my house.  It actually started several days before when Mom brought me flowers and a card, continuing on June 8 when Kelly called me to wish me an early Happy Birthday.  Then since my Birthday was on Sunday, I watched Addie in the afternoon.  I got birthday wishes from Mom, Paul, calls from Ryan, Jacki, Star, Julian, Kirs, Rob, Rowan and Dilly.  Faye, Jules, Mum, and Addie came over for a Birthday High Tea ceremony.  Three generations of Ayraud girls for tea.  Jules knocked on the door and said, “Nana close your eyes”.  I said why do I need to close my eyes?  Faye whispers to her and she says something about a surprise.  So, I close my eyes.   Like a child, I say, “Can I open them yet, can I open them yet?”  She finally says yes.  There are two beautiful butterflies made by Jules.  The wings are pink and yellow tissue paper decorated with stickers and sparkly glitter colored glue for the body.  The back part of the body is a clothes pin with a magnet, so they stick to my refrigerator and I can clip lists or pictures to each butterfly.  While I had my eyes closed Faye brought out a beautiful fruit and berry tart to accompany our tea.  I had 5 candles because we didn’t want to repeat what happened when my mother’s grandfather turned 90 and they actually used 90 candles on the cake.  All the candles burned together as one and burned or melted the whole cake!  Everybody sang Happy Birthday.  I (with Jules help) blew out those 5 candles.  I felt so young because of the 5 candles and everybody sang, “For she’s a jolly good fellow” and gave me 3 hip-hip hooray cheers and we had Tea and Berry Tart.  In the middle of this celebration Diane called.  I was feeling so good about my Birthday that I answered the phone with the greeting, “Carol’s Birthday Party”!  The celebration continued the next day when Faye, Javier, Ryan and Jules took me out for dinner.  I wanted to go to a restaurant I had never been to before.  We went to a place on Central.  I think it was called Hula Kiki or something close to that.  I had a Rum drink that was so strong that I could only drink a few sips.  Whew, I think it was almost pure Rum. We laughed and told stories and laughed some more.  Not bad for a 65 Birthday celebration if I do say so myself.  Thanks to one and all

 

One of the beautiful butterflies made for me by Jules!