I celebrated a birthday on the 20th, number 73. Doesn’t seem like it has been all that long, and I guess that is a good thing. I received many birthday wishes on Facebook, and I appreciate each and every one of them. I got cards from friends and family.

It was a day when I got to feeling a bit nostalgic, remembering birthday celebrations from years past and trying to remember some of them. Some were celebrated more than others, if you get my meaning. Funny thing though, I don’t remember ever asking for anything in particular for my birthday, not like Christmas.

I believe I did get a transistor radio when I was sixteen. A transistor radio was a big deal then, like getting a smart phone is today. High tech stuff! I remember the leather pouch it was covered with, and it required a nine-volt battery. It even had an earpiece for private listening. It wasn’t called an ear bud yet.

I got something this year that I will remember, even though I didn’t ask for it. It was a surprise. I got a full gallon of premium house and barn paint! Yes, I got a gallon of paint for a project I’ve been working on. I had mentioned to my son that a gallon of paint now costs upwards of thirty dollars!

Thirty dollars for a gallon of paint? In “old people” money it seems like a hundred. “Old people” money is something I tried to explain to the grandkids. Our money still holds the value it had in the 1970’s. Gas should be about two dollars a gallon, a candy bar fifty cents and a gallon of paint, probably $9.99.

In 1971, when I graduated high school min wage was $1.60 an hour. Someone making $5.oo an hour was doing great! I was eighteen then, today Dunkin’ Donuts pays twenty an hour! For doing what? Are you using your app today?

My first real job, where I paid taxes, had an hourly wage, was being the garbage man for a summer. Started at five in the morning and worked until the route was done, $1.60 an hour. I had to work on my birthday too! Birthdays were only a day then, not a week or a month.

It’s strange how life goes sometimes. Now my birthday is just another day, nothing to look forward too. It just means I got older. But, at the same time I am glad I got older, many I have known didn’t! No parties for me. But I got a gallon of paint and it was one of the best birthday presents ever! You have to be old to appreciate that. It is the thought that counts!

The bear is saying Happy Birthday, at least that is what the card says.