Aug 16 2009

Today I turn 63 and given my recent experience in the hospital, I am damn glad to turn 63.

Am a deep believer in birthdays. They are about celebrating the gift of life - a remembrance of the very day that people came into our lives and changed us forever with their gifts and beauty. Just look at the friends and family around you and imagine that they had never been born. How different our lives would be. What an amazing gift their birthdays have been to me and I love celebrating the day that they began this journey.

Patsy1113 Especially after losing so many young friends to the AIDS epidemic, it is even more important to celebrate that we have been given life. Birthdays should be about pure joy and celebration.

Now I have to admit that I have had a mixed bag of birthdays. August 16 fell right into the middle of the busiest time for our family - the summer crops - so I never really had a birthday party as a child. On one of my birthdays, my favorite singer Elvis Presley died. On another, the first tropical storm in years was hitting Southern California and I was in the middle of a nervous breakdown. My 40th was celebrated in the Sherman Oaks AIDS ward at the bedside of my partner Peter Scott. Two of best friends died of AIDS on another birthday.

However, the over-riding history of my birthdays is far from bleak and sad. There was a memorable one in Colorado where we had an old fashioned country western 'ho-down' and I loved every second of it. My 50th was on Fire Island just as my first book, Stranger Among Friends, was being published. I was thrilled to at last be an author and my three best buddies threw me a brilliant party. Just three years ago, I had the most amazing birthday ever celebrating in Mala Mala in South Africa with ten of my nearest and dearest. Watching Judith Light attempting to teach the local African chefs how to make a coconut cake (my favorite) was absolutely hysterical. The entire week was magical.

s I look back I realize the profound changes that I have been allowed to witness and celebrate. As a youth, we had the old fashioned pick and peck typewriters with carbon copy paper. Not only were there no electric typewriters, there were no copiers, no faxes, no computers and no Internet. We had to make copies on a stencil and a mimeograph machine. In our house there were no washer and dryer and no dishwasher. We hung our clothes to dry on a clothes line in the yard and they would 'freeze dry' in the winter months. Commercial jet aircraft had not begun coast to coast flights yet. Propeller fighter planes and bombers still could be seen in huge numbers flying formation overhead. Our first records were scratchy 78's with songs by Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page and Kate Smith. Our first television was a tiny-screened black and white where we watched Flash Gordon battle on Saturday morning serials and Howdy Doody converse with Buffalo Bob. Milton Berle, "Your Show Of Shows", "I Love Lucy" and "Amos and Andy" were the popular nighttime fare. Blacks were invisible on the airways except to play to stereotypes - segregation was a way of life. There was one 15 minute evening national newscast with local news filling the next 15 minutes. There were no satellites and space craft. Truman was President and getting out of Korea was a main issue in the 1952 "I Like Ike" election. Some things never change. Always seems like we are attempting to get out of some war somewhere on my birthday.

This year, I return to Turkey Hollow after over two weeks in the hospital. I am so happy to be going home and couldn't ask for a better gift. My friends Tom, Holly and Nathan are taking me back and spending some time helping me get settled. They better have coconut cake or there will be hell to pay! For the next month or two I will have a 'babysitter' to help me recover and then unfortunately, I have to move back to the city for health reasons.

There is a great deal of sadness around this necessity. However, no matter where I am, the Turkey Hollow spirit on my blog will continue and it will inspire a good deal of my writing. Thanks for your patience and love over the last couple of weeks regarding my absence. Your support has been a great birthday gift to me and I love you for it. I promise to continue fighting the good fight and, for good measure, maybe even be more sassy! Love to you all.

I am on the left in the above photograph.