My Father at the Nine-Oh

A "surprise" birthday party for someone who is turning 90?  Maybe not the wisest decision on Earth.  But on June 29th,  my Dad handled with aplomb, charm and class.  He had already watched with the family a very special compilation of pictures going back to the fifties, that my sister had arranged on a DVD and had set to music.  She did a bang up job, and when I talked to my father on the phone yesterday (July 8) he was still watching and talking about it.

Earlier in the day, this fabulous team of Eugene Strait and Alison Strait were declared Poker Bingo Champs of the world.

It's a birthday cake!  Notice his name is "Grandpa".  I guess we get defined by other youngest generation.  Perhaps not as fanciful a name as the PaPas and Peepaws, etc., that is more frequently found in the South.  Nevertheless, Grandpa seems to fit him so well.  Not the most prolific family on Earth, he is 90 and has two children, five grandchildren and zero great-grandchildren.  We try to make up in quality what we miss in quantity.  At least, that's the theory.

One balloon?  No people?  What's going on?

After careful thought, the decision to go with the numbers 9 and 0 instead of ninety candles, seemed like a pretty good one.