What I share with Iggy Pop, Tony Danza and Queen Elizabeth

On my 2nd birthday. I woke up and was still in bed when my mom came in with the Fisher Price Little People House set. It had a bow on it and the first thing I did was try out the doorbell. I don't clearly recall memories from another birthday until my sixth in 1977.

I woke up and at the table, sitting next to the cream of rice was my birthday gift. Earlier that year my Grandmother bought me a Rand McNally children's "Elf  Book" book called Beth's Happy Day. It was about a little girl who had a number of birthday surprises as she went along her day. For some reason that story really made an impression on me and I remember thinking of how my day would be just like the Beth's Happy Day story since it already began with opening a gift for breakfast.

The doll I received was Happy Birthday Tender Love by Mattel, she'd blow bubbles and a candle on her plastic birthday cake. I took her to school with me that morning. I heard this song on the car radio and it played most of the way to school. It made me feel happy and I remember just about everything I saw and thought en route to school that day while the song played. The memory ends there, no recollection of anything else that happened once I opened the car door.