Aunt Hilma tuned 90 yesterday and Grandma turned 86.
It has always been tradition for my grandpa to give everyone celebrating a birthday one dollar bills for their age. Grandma received 86 of them last night. It took forever to count them!!
Aunt Hilma loved her 90 one dollar bills!!
Christian, H, Grandma, Grandpa, Hilma, Me and Sarah.
My Mom did a great job decorating the tables for the party. Of course no party would be complete without cupcakes. 90 cupcakes that is! And lots of old pictures from the past!
Last night Jeremy and I had the opportunity to attend the birthday party of my Grandma Cecil and her sister Hilma. They were born on the same day 4 years apart. My Aunt Hilma turned 90 yesterday and my grandma is now 86. The party was at Mesa Country Club and was attended by the aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was fun to hear my grandma and aunt talk about life 60 years ago. One story in particular caught my attention. At 18 years old, Hilma had the opportunity to go to New York to study opera singing at the Metropolitan Opera House. At the time, auditions were not allowed and the only way you could study there was to be personally invited. She was invited as long as she could pay her air fare to New York. Her room, board, food, and education would be taken care of while she was there. Can you believe that at the time, her family could not afford her air fare and she did not get to go. That seems so hard for me to believe. Today, friends and family would be doing fund raisers to help her get there to pursue her dream.
Another story that I thought was funny was one told by my grandma. As a young child, she wanted to take dance classes. Her mother said no because she wanted her to take piano. Her mother signed her up for piano lessons and paid for them each month with the little bit of money that they had. A few months into the piano lessons, the teacher called my grandmas mother and said, "I thought you were going to sign Cecil up for piano lessons." All along my grandma had been ditching piano lessons that her mother thought she was attending each week. Needless to say she got in big trouble!
I love hearing stories from my grandparents. They have such great memories of growing up in Mesa and their childhood. I hope in 10 more years we will be getting together to celebrate Aunt Hilma turning 100 and Grandma turning 96.
