Happy 90th Birthday, Dad!
One of my dad’s earliest and very special memories was of sitting on his father’s shoulders, watching a New York City ticker tape parade in honor of Charles Lindbergh, who had returned from his historic solo transatlantic flight. Dad was five years old that day, June 13, 1927, and he and his father were among the estimated 3 to 4 million people lined up along Fifth Avenue from Battery Park to Central Park. The New York Times wrote “Never was America prouder of a son.” What a thrill it was for a little fellow to catch a glimpse of his hero!
Today Dad turns 90 and I thought I could honor this milestone with some words from the autobiography written by his childhood hero. I gave Dad a copy of The Spirit of St. Louis a few years ago, and I know he read some of it, even while protesting that he disliked reading. He was never much of a reader – he said all the reading he had to do in college turned him off to it. But he loved to discuss the meanings of words and we both enjoyed looking things up in the dictionary and encyclopedia. Now that he is confined to a wheelchair we do find him reading the books we offer to him from time to time.
For unmeasurable periods, I seem divorced from my body, as though I were an awareness spreading out through space, over the earth and into the heavens, unhampered by time or substance, free from the gravitation that binds to heavy human problems of the world. My body requires no attention. It’s not hungry. It’s neither warm or cold. It’s resigned to being left undisturbed. Why have I troubled to bring it here? I might better have left it back at Long Island or St. Louis, while the weightless element that has lived within it flashes through the skies and views the planet. This essential consciousness needs no body for its travels. It needs no plane, no engine, no instruments, only the release from flesh which circumstances I’ve gone through make possible.
Then what am I – the body substance which I can see with my eyes and feel with my hands? Or am I this realization, this greater understanding which dwells within it, yet expands through the universe outside; a part of all existence, powerless but without need for power; immersed in solitude, yet in contact with all creation? There are moments when the two appear inseparable, and others when they could be cut apart by the merest flash of light.
While my hand is on the stick, my feet on the rudder, and my eyes on the compass, this consciousness, like a winged messenger, goes out to visit the waves below, testing the warmth of water, the speed of wind, the thickness of intervening clouds. It goes north to the glacial coasts of Greenland, over the horizon to the edge of dawn, ahead to Ireland, England, and the continent of Europe, away through space to the moon and stars, always returning, unwillingly, to the mortal duty of seeing that the limbs and muscles have attended their routine while it was gone.
~ Charles A. Lindbergh
(The Spirit of St. Louis)
Hi,
A very Happy Birthday to you Dad. 🙂
A beautiful post for your Dad’s Bithday, and a very interesting read.
Thank you, Mags! I will pass your birthday wishes along. 🙂
Oh a huge Happy Birthday to your Dad, Barbara! What an achievement to reach such a grand age. I’m sure he has even more stories to tell, as the elderly always do. We should always make the time to listen to what they have to say, as their years have given them wisdom we could only dream of having. 🙂
We’re all surprised that Dad has made it so far – he started a long slow decline after my mom died twenty years ago. He suffers now from dementia, and many other health problems, but his long-term memory is very sharp. I love listening to his stories from the past and my notebook is full of them!
I will pass your birthday wishes on to him – even though he has trouble grasping what blog friends are. 🙂 He hears about blogs on TV and keeps asking me over and over again for an explanation of what they are, but he doesn’t remember because his short-term memory is gone…
happy, Happy, HAPPY birthday to your Dad!
Thank you, Laurie! I will pass your birthday wishes along, too. 🙂
Please wish your father a very happy birthday, Barbara.
That’s quite some excerpt and makes me think how astonishing flying must have been for the first fliers – not just Lindbergh and yet, how we take even that for granted these days. I wonder what will be taken for granted in the future that we are in awe of now?
Would your father perhaps enjoy audio books more? Maybe short ones so that he wouldn’t feel tied down to sitting and listening for long?
Thanks, Val, I will deliver your birthday wishes, too!
A couple of years ago, we took Dad out for a ride in the car. We showed off our new GPS (global positioning system) and he was completely mesmerized! When we got home he sighed and said, “I used to dream about stuff like this when I was a kid…”
I’m bonking myself on the head – audio books – what a fantastic idea, Val! Wonder why that never occurred to me before… Thank you for the suggestion. I think Kindle has an audio option on it, too. Will have to look into this…
An alternative is to pick up a portable CD recorder and use CD audio books, you could probably borrow them from a library.
Is his hearing okay? If not, get him a pair of lightweight headphones, might be better for an elderly person than earplugs.
Lightweight headphones is a good idea – thanks, Val. His hearing isn’t great – it’s not so much the volume but the distinction between syllables when people mumble…
Wow! What a wonderful milestone Barbara. I wish your Dad a very Happy Birthday filled with lots of love and laughter! 🙂
Thanks Donna, I will be sure to deliver your birthday wishes to my dad!
Hi Barbara,
I haven’t had an email notification that you’d written a post in a long time so I decided to come here and see what was going on. And I’m glad I did.
Please send my Happy Birthday wishes to your Dad. 90 is an incredible milestone especially for a man who lost his wife 20 years ago!
Oh dear Rosie, so sorry, I kept meaning to let you know that I found another new email subscription widget, about a month ago, so if you haven’t tried to subscribe again recently, it will probably work for you now. It seems to be working for Laurie, so that’s a hopeful sign…
I will bring your birthday wishes (and all the others) with me to see Dad on Saturday when Tim & I go up to visit him and bring him a cake and gifts for his little family party. Called him last night to wish him a happy birthday and decided to wait until Saturday to tell him all about everyone’s thoughts and wishes since he was having trouble, again with the short-term memory, remembering how many days until we’re coming and remembering where the kids moved away to. Sigh… Well, at least he remembers who I am!
I can’t believe your dad is 90! Happy belated birthday to him! I love that he loves the meaning of words. My grandpa was like that.
I don’t think Dad can believe he is 90 either, Kathy! Funny thing about the definitions of words – we had to look up their meanings quite often because we would be accusing each other of using them incorrectly and making up our own definitions to suit our own arguments. “Define your terms!” was a battle cry. Drove my mother and sister crazy! 🙂
A VERY belated birthday wish to your Dad, Barbara, on his 90th! So enjoyed your reflection on him and the excerpt from Lindbergh’s autobiography too.
Thank you, Diane! It was a lovely birthday even if Dad was bewildered at times – I think he enjoyed all the extra attention…