My cousin Ted called the other day. I knew he would. He always calls me on my birthday, December 5, to wish me a happy one – and to tease me. I am older than he is by 26 days. Teddy and Penny. We finished out 1949, he in the year’s last hour. We lived in the same house until we were 4 1/2. We all moved out of our multi-generational, multi-family home, to the suburbs. There, we lived next door to each other, a back yard sidewalk linking our two back doors until we were 18.
So, ’twas on the 5th, shortly before five in the evening (couldn’t resist that one), that the phone rang and there was Ted.
“Happy birthday, Pen. If you didn’t answer, I was going to sing you the Beatles’ birthday song.”
“Today’s Your Birthday?”
“No, the other one.”
It took me a few seconds to compute. What other song? “The one about sixty-four”.
Oh, geez! Of course Teddy would remember that!
“You mean ‘will you still need me, will you still feed me?’ “
“Yeah. When I’m sixty-four.”
We laughed and talked, Ted reminding me that it was popular more than forty years ago and how all of us, a generation of teens so full of ourselves, and sure we’d never grow old, let along turn 64, listened to the Beatles.
Well, my friends, it just happened to me, and it will happen to Ted just as this year ends. “Many years from now” IS now! Yikes! Interestingly, recording began on the song on December 6, 1966. The day after my seventeenth birthday.
I’m so grateful that my cousin Ted still calls me on my birthday. He is my oldest friend: that once little tyke who shared toilet water with me on Congress Street, squirmed on Santa’s lap at Marshall Fields, heard Santa through the walls of the house, and who always came in our back door on Harrison Street proclaiming “where’s PenDot?”. I’ll tag him back on New Year’s Eve, when he’s 64!
Happy Birthday “week,” Penny. Many blessings in the year to come! And an absolutely delightful memory. I always loved singing to this song, but you’re so right! When it first hit the airwaves 64 could have been 164 for how well we related to that far distant number. And it’s here. LOL! Well, aren’t we grateful the sixties represent many more blessings and joys than the images we probably pondered way back then. And I had the same multigenerational upbringing with my cousins and know that closeness. My cousins, in particular my cousin Pam who is only 5 months younger than me, are really siblings. I hope you had cake! 🙂
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How right you are, Debra, about those images we pondered way back then – and we had to make it to 1984 to boot! I had a good laugh when my cousin Ted mentioned. Woe to all my friends turning 64 after me. tee hee We did make it, and the good still outweighs the bad. We have been lucky in life, haven’t we, to have had a multigenerational upbringing? and you still do your parents so close by and your darlings not to far away.
I skipped the cake, which you’d understand if you saw how much I ate.
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Hope you had a great birthday. Jx
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I did, Janice, and it continues to be great. Thank you.
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Happy Birthday Penny, you’re nothing but a spring chicken.
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That explains all the clucking I’ve been doing. Thank you, Friko.
By the way, I’ve been enjoying your posts, your Advent, but, for some reason, every time I go to comment, I get a blank page. I think it is something with WordPress. Just so you know, I’ve been around, and will comment when I can break through.
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Happy belated birthday wishes! As for being 64, been there, done that! Such a splendid way to share the day with Ted. It gets faster and easier every year now!
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I like the easier part, Marilyn, just not the faster part. It is fun that we can always share our birthdays and memories, for sure. Thank you.
Freezing up here. Hope your snug there, and that your furnace is working.
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Belated happy birthday wishes, Penny. I am in total agreement with your friend Marilyn; 64 is a distant memory, and time does seem to move more quickly each year, but this is also a special time in its own right. How wonderful that you still have such a close bond with your cousin.
Freezing here, too. Not finished with settling in at the new house, but I’m pretty sure I know where my little ceramic heater is hiding, and I’m about to go ferret it out for warming my feet — slipper socks are NOT cutting it! Stay warm!
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It is a special bond, Karen, and, while I can’t stop time, I know I can savor the moments in it. I appreciate the encouragement coming my way.
Ah, those early days in a new house, finding the essentials. Sounds like you have the most important things accounted fore. We moved here nine years ago in January, and we really did settle in and it was home pretty quick, however, I still can’t find the glass coffee canister with a silver measure in it. Sigh.
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I saw your post this morning and realized that I had missed your birthday….again. I love the picture with you and cousin Teddy. I always remember you calling him “my cousin, Teddy” so that is how I always think of him. It is fun to have a cousin who is more like a brother. I hope your birthday was wonderful. Thank you for reminding me of the Beatles song. We probably danced to it at the Union dances in college. Happy, happy, happy belated birthday.
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My cousin, Teddy. Hmm? Sounds like a book title. I’m glad you still remember that, Janet, and don’t fret about my birthday. It comes every year, and you know exactly how old I am. Try to catch up to me. It is fun to have a cousin who is like a brother, but, with no sibling rivalry. He really made me laugh with the song, which, now that you mention it, we probably did dance to at the Union. We did have fun, didn’t we?
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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I hope you had a wonderful birthday. Those long term family friendships are the best.
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I forgot! I once knew every word to that album. Yes, 64 seemed so very far away, not so much anymore. 🙂
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They are the best friendships, Teresa. I agree, and I did have a wonderful birthday, which seems to be going on still. Thank you.
Can you believe we still have that album? Actually, we probably have two; one for each of us. I rather miss those now long-ago days.
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Happy birthday Penny. I know that song so well. The funny thing is that 64 seemed so old back then, a distant point on the horizon, and now that I’ve passed that mark I think how young 64 is really. As you are too, still full of fun and finding so much good in life. How special to have such a close cousin as you do with Ted. Such relatives are precious holders of memories for us.
PS tried without success to post this from the bach. Now I’m home, I should have success.
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We never thought we’d get older, did we Juliet? but, we did, and 64 really isn’t a bad place to be at all. It was fun thinking about this song, though. Precious memory holders. You always turn the perfect phrases, and this is one relative that certainly the holder of many memories for me.
Glad you were able to post. Hope your time at the bach was warm and restive.
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A belated happy birthday to you!! Tom’s a year behind you, same day.
Maybe you should take a vacation to the Isle of Wight, “if it’s not too dear” – wouldn’t that be fun!
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Thank you.
The Isle of Wight. That sounds mighty tempting right now, Nan. I’m now remembering that Tom and I share the date. Now, you have a song to sing to him next year.
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Happy belated! A funny memory about this song…my dad (who was more a classical music kind of guy) heard this song and loved it and bought the Sgt Pepper album because of it … he and mom would have been 54 or 55. I remember “singing” it to him on the phone when he was 64. And now I am 10 years older than he was then. Some of the oddest things make you think about the circle of life and all that!
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What a fond memory that most be for you as you recall singing this to him when he turned 64, Sallie! I think this songs harkens back to a different era than the sixties, which is why it not only appealed to the younger generation (at the time) but, their parents as well. Interesting that your dad went out and bought the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club album. Remember how revolutionary the Beatles were, and so many, many of their songs have been recorded by all music genre?
Well, now I’m 64. tee hee
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I am unpardonably late, Penny. I hope you had a lovely day. I love this tradition. If you will call me when I’m sixty-four, you’d make my day. 🙂
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It is never late here on the Cutoff, Andra. I did have a lovely day and, in fact, the celebration just keeps goings. If I’m still around, I will call you when you are sixty four.
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Dear Penny, happy belated birthday. What a wonderful tradition–that Ted calls you each year. So many wonderful memories the two of you share. I’d forgotten that wonderful Beatles song and I’m long past 64 when I could have listened to it, tapped my toe, and said, “Thank you, Universe, for all the friends who still love me now that I’m 64!” You must have so many friends who look at you and say, “This is 64??? Wow, the new 30!!!” Peace.
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It is, indeed, a wonderful tradition, Dee. Thank you. It is a toe tapper, isn’t it? I can’t wait to use this on on my friends that turn 64 after me and am giddy with delight that Ted reminded me of it. Of course, his birthday is on New Year’s Eve, so . . .
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So sorry to be late with my birthday greetings, Penny. i remember our two singing that song to me when I turned 64 three years ago. 🙂 I love hearing your stories about you and your cousin Ted. It’s a great privilege to have grown-up in such a close-knit extended family and you must both have so many happy memories.
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One can never be late with birthday greetings, Perpetua. The older I get, the more I like to celebrate my birthday all month. Isn’t it amazing how we can span the thousands of miles, but, share a birthday song – at least once in our lives? The Beatles have entertained us all in oh-so-many ways.
Indeed, it has been one of my life’s greatest gifts to have grown up in our large, noisy, and loving extended family and to still have one to share some of those memories with at the ripe age of 64. His birthday is on New Year’s Eve. I’ll return the song then.
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Happy belated Birthday!
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Thank you so much – and so nice to see you here again. One of the many things nice about being, cough, 64, is that you realize you can celebrate your birthday all month long.
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