The Best Birthday Ever

My 4th birthday was the most memorable birthday for me. At the time, I was obsessed with Hopalong Cassidy, a cowboy on the television. “Hoppy” wore a dark cowboy shirt with a  bandana tie with a silver slide, black pants, and a large black hat with a wide brim. Wearing black was unusual for a “good” cowboy, since in the 1950s, people usually associated white with good and black with bad. For example, another cowboy of the time, the Lone Ranger, wore all white clothing (he also wore an mask around his eyes to shield his identity).

I had a Hopalong Cassidy outfit. A black hat, a black skirt, a black shirt and a black vest was my outfit. I know my parents must have bought it for me; I don’t think that my mother could have made such an outfit. I also had cowboy boots which were black. In a pinch, I wore white anklet socks and black patent leather shoes. I was totally obsessed with cowboys and Hoppy was my favorite.

For my birthday, I received a wonderful present. It was a 45 rpm record that was Hoppy singing one of his cowboy songs, and at the end of the song, Hoppy sang “Happy Birthday” and said that my cousins John, Mikey, and Tom wished me a happy birthday. How thrilled I was that Hoppy was singing to ME, and he said that my cousins wished me a happy birthday, too. It was like my cousins and Hoppy were friends and they all cared about me.

Usually on birthdays, my cousins would come to the house for ice cream and birthday cake, and on their birthdays, we would go to their house to celebrate. So on my 4th birthday, John, Mikey, and Tom came to our house for my party. (Tom was a baby, so he didn’t really participate much in the festivities.) John was 6 1/2, Mikey was 4 1/2, and at the time, my brother Pat was 2 years old and my sister Joanne was a little over a year old. We played the record over and over. When it came time for ice cream and cake, we had chocolate ice cream (my favorite) and my birthday cake was shaped just like Hoppy’s hat! It wasn’t black, however; the cake was chocolate (my favorite) and it was iced with light blue frosting, because blue was my favorite color at that time. We all sat around the little table that my father had built for us, with four small chairs for John, Mikey, Pat, and me (Joanne was usually crawling around somewhere and Tom was only 6 months old). We have a picture of the four of us with the cake as we were eating the cake and ice cream.

That was the most memorable birthday I ever had and probably my favorite. The best birthday EVER!