YIKES!! My "baby" sister, Joyce, turned 60 on May 16th! How can that be? Aren't we still little kids, playing duets, building forts, riding bikes in the cemetery, playing jacks on the kitchen floor, roller-skating (clamp-on skates) on the front sidewalk, telling silly stories at night, walking to school (uphill both ways, of course), practicing the hula-hoop, playing chicken-base-bounce-out in the street, spying on the neighbors, running around after dark playing Starlight Moonlight, and on and on and on. We didn't have much money, but we sure had a great childhood!
The birthday girl!
We celebrated with Joyce, Paul, Ted, and Pat by going out for lunch at BANK, a restaurant in the old Farmers and Mechanics Bank building in downtown Minneapolis (pictured in the photograph on the wall). Our Aunt Alice was an officer at the bank, so we had all of our savings accounts there, and visited her whenever we went shopping downtown. Walking through the lobby after lunch brought back many memories of the "good old days."Fortunately, our lunch lasted long enough so Ted and Pat missed the tornado that went through North Minneapolis. The sirens were going off when we left the restaurant, and we weren't worried since we were heading south and we could tell the storm was to the north, but Ted and Pat were headed right into it. Many roads were blocked by fallen trees, and it took them a really long time to get to Brooklyn Park. They made it, though, and there was no damage to their house. It kind of reminded us all of the tornado that hit the same area in 1965 (when we were all just babies).
Happy Birthday, Joyce!
