You might have noticed over the course of this little blog a certain birthday decoration that appears at every family birthday celebration.
The tin foil numbers!
You might be asking yourself? What the heck is the deal with this little piece of decoration? If not, well, I’m gonna tell you anyways. :-)
The story begins in the present day. As I have mentioned I own/work on our family farm. It is more then just a farm though. We do all of custom turf work for local schools and cities. We have 400 acres of sod and about 40 (amazing) employees. But it didn’t start out that way…..
In 1977 my parents started Mountainview sod farm. They were young, engaged to be married and broke! My parents still laugh at how they would save up for months in order to rent a VHS player and movie to watch on a Saturday night.
Many moons later in 1983 their lives changed when they brought home a healthy baby boy..AKA..my brother. And their lives went down hill from there…
TOTALLY KIDDING! Jared’s not that bad! :-)
They began renovating one of the old farm houses that they lived in and so money got even tighter but they wanted to give their kid the best of what they could afford…especially for his upcoming birthday!
With a birthday comes the usual…food, cake and decorations. The food and the cake were simple for my Mom who loved to cook at that time. But the decorations were an issue and they didn’t have money to go out and buy any at that time. So, she got creative.
Out of an old cereal box she traced out Jared’s age. She cut out this number and sat back and thought it kind of looked boring. With no modge podge or glitter pens in those days she decided to take a roll of tin foil and wrap it around the number to give it a little sparkle. The perfect birthday decoration to hang over the kitchen table for Jared.
It’s been many years, and many birthdays since then.
Traditions have been changed or altered and Jared (and hopefully Ryan and I one day too) has started his own family with their own traditions. There is however one thing that still remains to this day at every birthday party….
The tin foil birthday number! It’s a simple decoration yet a reminder every year at the humble beginning my parents had and how to appreciate the things that matter most. Happy Friday!
xo
Oh how ingenious is that! Seriously! This whole humble beginning is HARD! :( But I love how that tradition has kept going!
ReplyDeleteLove this blog Lindsay!
ReplyDeleteYup, humble beginnings have made your parents the hard workers, generous people thay are today who deserve everything they have. They are great role models for everyone. I love your tradition!
ReplyDelete