MY MEMORIES

Birthday Party

When I turned 50 we had a birthday party. We sent invitations to about 12 couples, some faculty colleagues, some town folks, and some other friends. We told them to bring no presents, only their presence was required. We asked the invitees to RSVP with their favorite drink. I wanted to make sure we had everything our guests might want. We also told them that Champagne would flow at midnight along with some specialty foods. I asked the builder of our house and duplexes if he had a couple sheets of plywood we could borrow for the evening and we made them into an 8 x 8 foot dance floor in the middle of the living room. Our realtor and duplex manager made a special cassette tape of danceable music, most of which turned out to be Country & Western songs. The dance floor was busy all night long. At midnight was served up a selection of Danish open-faced sandwiches, called smørrebrød. We had æg og rejer, ost, rullepølse, sardiner, og sild. We also had æbleskiver, which I showed them how to make and eat, them told each person they had to make their own and most did. The party went on and on. In the morning Nancy told me I was still doing the ‘Cotton eye Joe’ with Jackie at 2 am. For years afterward people would tell us about the party. Scott often reminded me about he and Elisabeth standing by the stove making ælbeskiver in the middle of the night.

We had only one negative situation that years later turned into a laughing point. E.O. had too much to drink which was okay, his wife could drive him home, but he refused to give up the keys. It was a bit of a struggle but a few of us got his keys away from him. He got mad and said he would walk home, which we knew was impossible as it was about 8 miles away, back to town, across town, and across campus. But he stormed out of the house. We tried to stop him but his wife said let him go, so we did. The next morning he called Nancy and apologized profusely. We learned later that he got about 2 miles down the road when a couple from our party on their way home spotted him. Apparently, he had sobered up enough that they convinced him to let them take him home. That part of the story was told and retold many times along with a lot of laughs at E.O.’s expense.

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