by Adelle Holmes

Created on: August 03, 2009

"Dad, what would you like for your birthday?"

Crap...Has that much time passed already? I looked over at my daughter, who had asked the question, and swallowed my food. I had not acknowledged the fact that my birthday was that close and that I would soon be turning another year older. So, to get by this embarrassing fact I started off on talking about my birthday and went off onto talking about work. I made sure the story was long.

"I told them that I would like to get Saturday off and do you know what they told me? That if I wanted Saturday off then all the other workers will want Saturday off. It's unbelievable!" I poked my fork into the steak we were eating and took a noticeably large amount and stuffed it into my mouth.

"Dad, don't get off track here. What do you want for your birthday?"

I swallowed my steak hard and took a long drink of ice cold milk before I answered. "I'd like Saturday off."

"Dad!" she said laughing.

"Alright, alright. I want to go to Yankee Stadium, but seeing how the gas prices are skyrocketing I don't see how that is possible. Can you get me the time and place to go hunting?"

She looked at me over her glasses.

"Okay, pumpkin," I laughed, "I actually was thinking about a new backpack for hiking." I paused. "Music CD's would be great too."

She smiled and said thoughtfully, "Like a long lost record you need to hear again?"

Laughing I replied, "Yes! A long lost record I need to hear again! That would be great!"

Only that happened about three hours ago and I was now standing in front of a closet that was full of records. Thousands of them; ones that used to be in order but now weren't. Although that didn't matter, their music was still great!

The door of the closet opened with a soft creek and, making a mental note to oil the door, I gazed on my collection, reading the titles. Lynard Skynard, Led Zeppelin, Charlie Daniels Band, the Monkeys...But I wasn't really thinking about them. My mind drifted back to when I had bought a specific Beatles record and rushed back home to listen to it. Not only were the pictures inside great, but the music was even better.

Somehow, between my reminiscing, I ended up in bed thinking over my childhood and how everything could have gone so quickly. There was the time my brother and I dropped water balloons on our sister and her friends from the roof. I can also remember we threw off GI Joes to watch them gently float down in their parachute. Or they had the opposite effect and just ended up

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