Summer of 1955
If you’ve been reading The Art of Doing Stuff for a while, you’re familiar with Betty. My mom.
Well … Betty’s special day is today. No, she didn’t “become a woman”. She became 75.
75 years ago in a small valley town in Ontario, Canada, Betty was born. And here is a quick rundown of how things have gone since then.
Age 0 – 14
Pretty uneventful. Sock hops, rolling up the rug, discovering really red lipstick … that sort of thing.
Age 15
Betty becomes a bit high spirited and her parents send her to the local nunnery to get straightened out.
Age 15 and a few days
Betty declares she loves the nunnery and proclaims she’s going to become one.
Age 15 and a few days and a few hours
Betty’s parents squeal into the nunnery parking lot and drag Betty back home.
Age 17
Betty decides to start her own dress shop. She runs it out of her bedroom. She is an entrepreneur. As a dressaholic, she makes the poor decision to buy all the sample dresses in her own size.
Age 17 ¼
Betty’s Dress Shop goes out of business.
Age 18
Betty meets a boy. They fall in love, get married, have 3 daughters.
The rest of the stories having to do with Betty involve broken bones, swearing, the odd shotgun incident and a recent Red Bull obsession. She thinks it’s medication. As in, she been overheard saying “Oh! Shoot! I forgot to take my Red Bull“.
Betty, as you may have guessed, is still high spirited. We’re considering sending her to a nunnery.
Sheesh, always a little late to the party! So this post must have been before I found you Karen, but I will tell you this: my office moved into one of RED BULL’S former offices here in north Dallas! And did they leave anything behind for us? Cases of Red Bull? Leftover alcohol from all their swanky parties? That gorgeous yellow leather sofa? Those disco ball bulls that hang from the ceiling? Oh hell to the no. They took everything. :(
What they did leave behind was the most interesting office any of us has ever worked in: funky ceiling lights, tin ceiling, dark wood floors, weirdly angled walls, gorgeous textured glass conference rooms, and an office that has far too much square footage for the number of people we have in the office daily (less than 5; long story). Needless to say, we will probably be moving/downsizing soon. WAAH. RB in the meantime, moved into even cooler, swankier digs closer to downtown Dallas, which you can see here if you (or Betty!) is interested: http://tinyurl.com/ovmp77t (funny…what they call “traditional” WE call “wackadoodle!”)
p.s. Betty was beautiful (oh, still is!) back in the day and I can see where you got your pretty from! :)
Betty….you and I are much too young to be this old!!
Happy belated birthday Betty.
happy belated birthday Betty! i hope your celebrations are ongoing – for a special occasion, i can thoroughly recommend both Red Bull sorbet and Red Bull jelly (that’ll be Jello in N American rather than English English) – with cute little golden bubbles suspended in it.
many happy returns and much love & best wishes xx
(PS which reminds me, didn’t you have a post about freezing wine, Karen? red, white, rose & sparkling all make great grown-up sorbets and i often make mulled wine jelly as an alternative pud at Christmas.)