Today marks the 100th anniversary of my Grandma Green’s birth. I’ll celebrate by making macaroni & cheese and tuna fish for dinner because we discovered that taste treat together when I stayed with her in Chetek, Wisconsin one summer. I’ll also make banana milkshakes because she and I used to drink those and play cribbage. I’m not sure cribbage is in the plan for tonight, but you never know.
My mom made me this poster for my 17th birthday. I don’t remember her making it nor actually receiving it, but I do remember my mom’s decoupage phase. She made posters for everyone — they were good too. She’d tailor them perfectly to the person. She was always saving magazines and clipping out the bits that she thought would be good on a poster for someone. We always had a jar of Mod Podge handy at home, in case we needed to decoupage something quickly.
Happy Birthday Dona Poster
Anyway, my poster. It had a pocket watch with the time I was born depicted in both the position of the hands and in writing along the bottom edge. Elgin, where I was born, was known for their watches, so perhaps the pocket watch also symbolized that.
clockNewborn Donaroom
The poster also had a copy of my first photograph — all 3 pounds, 9 ounces of me — with my astrological description pasted below. My daughter likes this photograph of me because of my pointy ear. She says it proves I am of either fairy or Elven blood. My dad’s name is Elvin, so perhaps she’s right.
Mom also included an image of my astrological sign on the poster. One of us, I guess, was into astrology at the time. I suspect it was her, but perhaps I was too.
Finally, the poster has a drawing of two women at the doorway of a room. One is older, heavy with glasses, and the other young and slender. A black cat rubs against the leg of the younger woman. The younger woman holds a floor lamp, frying pan and a goldfish bowl. She stands near a suitcase.
I think this depicted me moving into my new room. The drawing probably came from a magazine showing someone getting let into her first apartment, but my mom saw it and thought it could represent me moving to my new room. Either that or it was a not-so-subtle hint that it was nearly time for me to move out.
The cat is Cinder. I didn’t have a lamp like that and didn’t own a goldfish, but otherwise, she got it right!
The writing on the poster says:
Dona 17 Years Later
Happy Birthday
Love From Mom 1973
It’s cool that I found this a few months before my own daughter turns 17. I think I know what my mother felt, having a firstborn daughter so close to adulthood. Pride. Disbelief. Sadness. Hope.
Clutch Cargo Lips 