Fifth Birthday - April 27th, 1961
That's me, the Birthday Boy, in a dark blue shirt and red pointy party hat, dealing with a blue balloon. We are in the patio in the backyard; Dad did his tiki decor with it - you can see the net and the starfish. That's next door neighbor Mikie Holland in the pink; the little girl in the foreground is dressed in her pretty party dress because kids dressed up for birthday parties in the Sixties. The kid next to me in red is George, the kid with his back to the camera is Jack and Tony is on the left.
I remember that big institutional grade metal pitcher very well - it was great and we had it for many years! You don't find goods like that anymore. (The ones we have at church are plastic.) I'm guessing that Kool-Aid is inside. Probably green because that's my favorite color and it's my birthday!
A ladder is in the background.
Marie, one of the mothers, helps with the hot dogs which are being grilled on an electric grill you can barely see to the left of the bun packages. It's powered via a long black extension cord you can see going up a 2 X 4 Dad erected and off to some source of power.
More ladders are in the background. That girl is the front is named Estrella; I think her father ran a Filipino restaurant on Hoover Street not far from where we lived. We ate there occasionally.
Mom arranged these photographic kid groupings for posterity. There's Estrella, me and Mikie. Her sister Jane - hold still! - leans over and the twins (triplets?) are in front.
Dad's tiki back yard is coming along nicely, with bamboo fence and banana trees. Those big industrial lights illuminate the Thriftymart grocery store parking lot behind our yard.
An expansion of the kid grouping with more personnel. George is in red at top row with Jack next to him. The kid with the Civil War hat is Jack's little brother Merrick. Kitty Holland and Jane Holland finish the back row. The little kid left of me is Donald, George's little brother. Tony sits above the twins. Mikie Holland clutches one of the twins.
Check out Dad's white tiki face made from a palm frond above Jane!
I'm looking at one of the twins, seated in an outdoor lounge chair. Tony is behind me, and you can get a good view of the side of the tiki hut. The ladder that one would climb up to get through that door is temporarily placed in front. The way out of the hut is off the ramp and into the pool.
Jane at the front door to the tiki hut. Tony climbs up the ladder. For some reason the pool isn't assembled yet... it's April. There are months yet to go before summer.
Happy Birthday!