My 34th Birthday

Being that’s it’s the verge of my 69th birthday, one I hate to admit to, I thought I’d reminisce about a few birthdays I can remember.


On my 34th birthday, I had a weird surprise party given to me by some of my dear friends, but it was stranger than a “normal” one. They had planned that we all would go out, but when they arrived to pick us up I was blindfolded. They had a marvelous time driving me all over, as I had no idea where I was going, and when I arrived I had no idea where I was. They were all excited by the opening of Farrell’s, a new deli/ice cream parlor which is was a big franchise in the US, but I had never heard about.

Farrell’s is currently a revived business trying to regain the feeling of the old Farrell’s, an Old Tyme Ice Cream Parlor. A blindfold was superfluous, because I never knew about it anyway but it gave everyone great fun, except maybe me.
Led into the madhouse, it was a full restaurant, where we ordered a six foot sub (it looks like) and some giant ice cream sundaes. I remember they would come out and sing songs about you if you ordered certain sundaes like the Trough, where they insinuated you were a pig. All employees would rush out at a moments notice for various reasons and sing or scream at the correct moment.

I was the birthday boy, so when my giant sundae for the group, I think, came out, a million young people came rushing over and made me stand on a chair and announce how old I was and what my name was and they screamed and they sang! This would not work for the shy types, as it would traumatize anyone of any age and create an atmosphere conducive to assuming a fetal position for a few weeks.

The food was good, the atmosphere raucous and we all had a good time, and we all went to a friend’s house later and drank heavily.

It was a great birthday!