Birthday Memories

Homemade Noodles!

I hope my readers will excuse me if I seem a little self-indulgent this week. I'm still recovering from a whirl-wind trip back home, just me alone, last weekend. My oldest brother, Joe, retired from Pioneer after 34 years of service and a celebration was held in his honor last Friday in LeRoy, Illinois. I caught an early flight to Chicago on Friday morning and rode the Amtrak "Lincoln Service" to Bloomington. I loved riding the train through Illinois, and seeing miles and miles of nothing but big sky and snow covered fields.  

It was so wonderful to hang out with all four of my siblings and their families, as well as see so many old friends at the Fireman's/Legion's dinner dance on Saturday night. Since I was home so close to my birthday (51 -- yikes!), sister Sue and her husband Tim, hosted a special Sunday dinner on the farm and Sue made Mom's homemade chicken and noodles, as well as mashed potatoes and corn (both grown on the farm) and a Texas cake. I realized that I had not been back home around the time of my birthday for many years, and it was such a treat.

For this week's throwback, I pulled out a picture from another memorable birthday way back in 1967. 

This was taken at a party celebrating my third birthday. The two girls in the back row are Lisa Graham and Nancy Reineke. Renee (Frazier) Sheedy is on the left, I'm in the center, and the two boys in the front are Eddie Arnett and Scott Pinkston.