My ancestor Levi Peer wrote to his mother in the 1830s asking her when he was born as he needed that information. Had he not required it he likely would have gone his whole life not knowing the date.
Let's face it, unless one was wealthy most of our ancestors were too busy struggling to survive to worry about a birthday. Birthday celebrations seem to have jumped into common use in the Victorian age and have been carried on since then.
As a child I do not recall having one single birthday party. I don't remember other children coming to our home to celebrate with me. In fact I don't recall anything special on my birthdays except I suppose I was given a small gift. When I was 10 my new sister-in-law who was just 18 years old, was horrified to find out I had never had a birthday cake and so she made one just for me. I was thrilled to have my own special cake with candles. That's the only time I had a cake on my birthday.
Which brings me to today. It's my birthday and even though as each year passes I sometimes wish I could be like Benjamin Button, time does march on. A new number is added to our age. To help me through this one, I've
Hubs has been a bit worried about accomplishing this task as I have multiple food allergies and so I have very specific requirements for what kind of cake I want. We live in a rural community surrounded by small towns and the local stores do not do custom cakes. I've told him I will even accept a couple of nice cupcakes as long as they are the flavour I want (lemon icing, white cake or white icing, lemon cake)
After I finish this blog post I'm also taking the day off. Normally I work 7 days a week on my books, my websites, my blogs and my genealogy but today I'm treating as a special day to do whatever I feel like. And that just might be lying on the couch watching movies all day so please don't anyone disturb me unless you're calling or writing to wish me a Happy Birthday. And if you're dropping by please bring cake. :-)
