Life at 29, past parties

Not surprisingly, life at 29 really isn’t much different than life at 28. Having re-read what I wrote exactly a year ago, I can say I still agree with and do my best to follow the same principles. But as I sit one year before the next big chapter in life, I took a look back at some early birthdays and thought I’d share a few thoughts on what birthdays used to be.

Birthdays used to rock. I’m not sure why birthdays go out of fashion. I know the common excuse is you don’t want to be reminded of how old you are, which is fine, but just because you’re ashamed of your age doesn’t mean you shouldn’t celebrate yourself - and more so - it doesn’t means you shouldn’t have a party and get presents you enjoy.

I only have minor memories of my early childhood birthdays. Looking back at these photos, I don’t remember the day of my birthday as I remember the toys I got for my birthdays. Lets take a look.

As this photo from ‘81 clearly shows, I had a love of music even back then. Sure, that player was limited to only five songs, but I spun them over and over and actually had that damn thing laying around for years. It’s interesting seeing all the toys you get when you’re young and you can tell that even then I had no idea what they were for, let alone that they would only get used for a relatively short period of time.

That was all good, but when I turned three things started to kick a little more ass. By then there were neighbors invited to my birthday party. I only remember one of my neighbors, but I’m sure I appreciated the other three that showed up.

Just look at that truck, it’s huge! If I remember correctly it had some sort of car in the back of it, or if it didn’t, it was certainly a great fit for all my Transformers and GI Joe tanks. And speaking of GI Joe…

OK, so I wasn’t quite to GI Joe yet, but you can’t go wrong with army guys. And these army guys came equipped with tanks, jeeps, and other goodies. But it gets better.

Aw yeah. A cape. You can’t rock any harder than you do with a cape. I think one of my mom’s co-workers or friends made the cape for me. I loved that cape and kept it for years. I used to wear it while I swung on the swing set and jumped from the top. I’d try to spin around to see it flutter in the breeze. And do I really need to point out the sweetness called that E.T. t-shirt? I think not.

My fourth birthday in ‘83 didn’t appear to be too bad. There weren’t too many photos from the day, shy of this one of me showing off what could be the only present I wish I still had today (shy of the cape), the Dukes of Hazzard Hot Wheels play set.

By the time I turned five I was way into the GI Joes and for every birthday and Christmas brought more and more action figures and vehicles. Here you can see one of the many GI Joe toys I managed to keep around for years, my Cobra HISS. Other pictures from this birthday show that my party was a family-only party, which means one of my aunts or uncles must have bought me this, because I doubt my parents would have known to get it.

Since my birthday was in October, I was somewhat of a year behind starting school as I missed the minimum must-be-5-years-old requirement by August. But since school had started by the time my birthday came, it meant the party might have been the first with actual friends. Too bad I can only name one or two kids in any of these pictures, but having those friends meant the presents were probably a lot better because they all wanted the same things.

And those things were Transformers and GI Joes. Note the action figures all lined up and matched with their proper ID card and accessories. Then there was the rip-off GoBot jet and the Mask motorcycle, which I had for a long time as well - too bad the Mask action figures were way to tiny to mingle with my GI Joes. I also wish I still had the grabby arm because I’d give to Jen so she could reach the top shelf.

I hope I can dig up more birthday photos post-1985, but I’m sure few of them rocked as hard as those before. But then it all goes back to asking why nobody has birthday parties anymore? There was a time when every birthday was reason to celebrate. Now we just think we need to have parties for the “big” years, like when you turn 30, 40, 50, and so on…why not party when you turn 29? Or 33? You’re still alive…still rockin’ it…why not show off a little? Give yourself some credit. I make it a point to take a vacation day on my birthday every year to celebrate myself. It’s not selfish, it’s important and it is deserved. You do a lot of good things throughout the year and help a lot of people, take at least ONE day to help yourself.

You’ll be glad you did…but unless you have a cape it just can’t be all it could.

And if you’re looking for some more laughs, head to the Flickr gallery for some more birthday photos.

A quick sidenote, going through these old photos and scanning them is really good time. If you haven’t gone through your old photo albums to look through them and better yet, scan and preserve them, you really should. If you’re like me, looking at these will really make you happy, remembering and looking back on when your life was a little simpler. But just because it was “easer” back then than it is now, doesn’t mean now should be any less fun.