March: the Month of Birthdays

My last posting here concerned a birthday celebration at the end of February. It was for a famous San Antonian (José Antonio Navarro) who would have been 213 years old were he yet alive.

By contrast, March is THE month for birthday parties for the living! Certainly for men in the Graham family. And so. . . my Dad flew here from Boise, arriving late Monday evening the Third. His birthday was the next day -- 75 candles. My "baby" brother Patrick's is tomorrow the Eleventh -- 41. And mine is Friday the Fourteenth -- 54!

Now it had been in my thinking that we should probably have a joint celebration of all three. And that became sort of imperative when Patrick drew 24-hour duty ON HIS BIRTHDAY! (Hey, Army! that's cruel & unusual punishment and unconstitutional!) So the "main event" so to speak was yesterday (Sunday the Ninth). But before the "main event" there were other frolics.

First, on Dad's day LaRae and I took him to the Medical Corps Museum (AMEDD) on Fort Sam Houston. It's close by the old Brooke Army Hospital. In addition to inside displays covering the development of military medicine over the nation's history, we saw some static displays outside, of various wheeled ambulances and medical helicopters.

In the gift shop a shirt caught my eye. It was "medical maroon", with golden threads spelling out BAMC, along with the words (Brooke Army Medical Center) and the military medical symbol (caduceus). I considered that this might be a great gift from me to Brother for his birthday. LaRae affirmed my supposition, so I purchased the classy shirt.

On Friday the Seventh, Uncle Chuck and Aunt Alice came down from Georgetown, Texas, and the six of us Grahams lunched at Paloma Blanca. When my son David visited me on his way to begin drama ministry with Covenant Players in '04, Howard Haring and family (see 14 Dec 06 posting for info on him) treated us to dinner at Paloma Blanca, an elegant Mexican restaurant on Broadway in Alamo Heights just south of City Hall. Well, we all ordered scrumptious plates. Mine was enchiladas de pollo en mole (chicken enchiladas in a Mexican chocolate sauce, mole). Yum, yum! We also had photos of us taken by the wait staff. (Perhaps I can learn how to post such photos on this blog, eh?)

Saturday I had to work at the Fiesta Texas ticket booths. As soon as I got sighed out in late afternoon, I phoned Patrick et al., and learned that they planned to dine at the County Line, on The Riverwalk. Since the next VÍA bus would get me downtown to that area (Riverwalk) about five, I suggested that I simply meet them there at the restaurant.

And so it was. I had to lug my overcoat along with me, because it had been at or below freezing when I left my efficiency to go to work that morning. But by late afternoon it was a very pleasant day. So I was glad that the other three (Dad, Patrick and LaRae) had gotten seats at an outdoor table in front of the County Line, right beside The Riverwalk. As I had ordered my favorite Mexican plate at Paloma Blanca for Friday lunch, now I ordered my fave off the County Line's menu: beef ribs. They serve three of the big whoppers, plus two sides (in my case, I ordered pinto beans and cole slaw). Best of all, perhaps, is that the County Line serves loaves of fresh bread as appetizers, one wheat and one white. The bread is terrific -- I swear I could make a meal just out of eating the C.L. bread! LaRae surmised that it's made with honey. Probably so....

Well, the "big" birthday celebration was Sunday afternoon and evening, in Patrick and LaRae's quarters on post. We exchanged birthday cards and gifts. Patrick was indeed pleased with the BAMC polo shirt! Dad gave each of us, his sons, a Hewlett Packard laptop "notebook" computer. A good portion of the late afternoon and into early evening was spent getting mine set up and then me getting familiar with my new "toy".

And "toy" is an appropriate word, I think, because at one point I commenced a game of computer solitaire. I'd gotten hooked on this in the mid-1990s, when I was an adjunct instructor at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. You see, I really enjoyed watching the computer "shuffle" the deck when you won a game! But... THIS computer was different for playing solitaire! Indeed, it took several tries before I won a game, and then the "shuffling" wasn't all that engaging. PLUS, this computer's program doesn't let you change the back of the cards, etc. Oh, well....

All the time that we (Patrick & I) were dealing with hi-tech, the big-screen TV was on the GAC ("Great American Country", as in music) cable channel. Shortly they began a show celebrating country music of A.D. 1996. Now, that year just "happened" to be the year I worked at Grand Ole Opry Tours in Nashville. In our lobby (where I did most of my work as Tour Coordinator, selling tickets) were two large TV sets in the upper corners of the ceiling, set constantly to CMT, the country music video channel. We workers plus guests got to watch all the videos which were popular that year, such as Leeann Rymes' "Blue" and Alan Jackson's "Itty Bitty". And here this GAC show was showing them again! Talk about a trip down memory lane! I didn't even have to shut my eyes to picture myself back behind the counter at GOOT, watching these songs for the first time!

I kept wishing that they would show the most engaging video of that time, for me. It was "Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)" by John Michael Montgomery. A good portion of the images on this video were of three Amish farmers versus three Jap businessmen in a livestock auction barn, and it was hilarious!

Well, they didn't show that video, but the did show a more deeply cherished one: "Go Rest High on That Mountain", written by Vince Gill (upon his brother's untimely death, if I remember correctly), and sung by him, Ricky Skaggs and Patty Loveless, gathered around a single floor-stand microphone (just like in the olden days, "golden days" of radio). It's a beautiful song, with deeply touching lyrics, sung with strong feeling. Truly it caused my head to leak and my heart to long to return to the hills and hollers of Tennessee, the "greenest State in the Land of the Free!"

Here are the lyrics:

"Go Rest High on That Mountain"

I know your life
On earth was troubled
And only you could know the pain
You werent afraid to face the devil
You were no stranger to the rain

Chorus:
Go rest high on that mountain
Son, you work on earth is done
Go to heaven a shoutin
Love for the father and son

Oh, how we cried the day you left us
We gathered round your grave to grieve
I wish I could see the angels faces
When they hear your sweet voice sing