August 31, 2024 is my daughter’s fortieth Birthday. Sometimes you do buy books for their cover. I have bought her several books, ones that I get to use in this story before I give them to her. Hopefully, she will not have read this before she actually opens the gifts.
First is the book “40 Years” by Theodore Laer, published 1936. This is his autobiography, but also a wonderful look at the Americanizing of a German who came in 1892 to live. After twenty years, he became a citizen. Ten years later he was considered a traiter about war. After another ten years, he showed the world the power of youth and growth in United States, It is quite a story.
It is also adorned with forty bookmarks, each that have a book charm that says “Once Upon a Time”. She may give them away, or use them in various books she may be reading at the same time.
I also wrapped “A Woman of Forty” by Desmond Hall, published 1952. This was a pulp paperback that had the subtitle “What Husbands Don’t Know Won’t Hurt Them”.
My daughter began her school teaching career with Science in a Junior High school. She and I had several discussions about Pluto. She was in favor of its downgrading, and I was not. I bought her a Disney book “Goofy Visits Pluto, a Book About the Planets” by Cathy East Dubowski, 1995.
I also added a bookmark charm of Pluto, with birth and death on it. For me, the planet has never died.
On August 31, 1957 my Mother and Father married. If not for them, I would not be here, nor would my lovely Daughter.
They were married at the First Lutheran Church in Galesburg, Illinois.
This is a modern close-up of the stained glass over the altar.
And a close-up of the glass over the entrance of the church.
I am one lucky guy. I have greatness all around me. I can look in one direction for what great parents I had. I look in another direction for what a great daughter I have. And Goofy ol’ me, “Stuck in the middle.”
“Yoda, Are we going in the right direction?”
Yoda replies, “Off course, we are.”
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