Celebrate the Day

My toddler portrait

No Friday Funnies today because today is my 🎂. 

It's my belief that a birthday celebration isn't one day, but the whole year. So, let the fun begin 🎉  in this long-ish post since it is MY special day, indulge me, once again.

In Roman numerals, my birthdate is III.II.MCMXLIX in the traditional American/Western style and formatted in the order of month-day-year (02-03-1949). Today, my birthday is a play on numbers, 02-03-2023.

I'm part of the generation born after the end of WW II as birth rates worldwide. The early 1940s were dominated by war. The war's end was the start Baby Boomer years with technology advancements like the jet engine, nuclear fusion, radar, rocket technology, space exploration and improved air travel. 

The 1940s famously introduced the Slinky, Velcro, Jeep, Tupperware and Frisbee. Featured inventions included the jet engine, the computer, the microwave oven, kitty litter, and the Crash Test Dummy.

Here's some interesting trivia about the year 1949: 

• The Candy Land (board game) was introduced after being designed by retired school teacher Eleanor Abbott, while she was recovering from polio in San Diego, CA. She created it to entertain hospitalized children who had the same disease
• Car ignition keys were introduced; before that, only door locks provided security 
• First animated TV cartoon series, Crusader Rabbit, ran from 1949 to 195
• First credit card was issued and made out of cardboard. Diners Club co-founder Frank McNamara was dining with clients and had forgotten his wallet. He designed a multipurpose charge card as a way to avoid future embarrassments. 
• Charles Lubin's small chain of Community Bake Shops became the Kitchens of Sara Lee, named after his daughter
• Minimum wage went from 40 to 75 cents in October
• Price of a gallon of gas in 1949: 22 cents —a bargain today
• Harvard raised its tuition to more than $500 a year — YIKES!
• A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams won the Pulitzer Prize
• 1984 by George Orwell was first published in June 1949
• The HOLLYWOOD sign originally read HOLLYWOODLAND to advertise a new housing development until the last four letters were removed in 1949
• Since its 1949 debut, the Les Paul Gibson ES-175 guitar has never been out of production
• The City of Los Angeles bought Van Nuys airport for $1 (not sure why?)
• Frank J. Zamboni patented the Model A Zamboni Ice Resurfacer
• Due to the Retail Gasoline Act of 1949 * you can't pump your own gas in NJ
• The White House was completely gutted and the inside rebuilt from the ground up from 1949-52. After decades of poor maintenance, the building was in danger of collapsing and forced then President Harry Truman to move out and commission the rebuild
• Biggest 1949 Christmas gifts were: Silly Putty, Candy Land, Kewpie dolls, Cootie, Clue, Bouncing Putty, Wind-up Clacking "Talking Teeth"

* As a NJ native who never pumped gas, I wondered why? In 1949, Congress passed a statute, the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act, which prohibited gas retail customers from pumping their own gas. Today, NJ is the lone state to maintain this law by requiring a professional to pump gas, anywhere. Oregon is the only other state with a full-service law since 1951. Oregon’s laws, which are far less strict, allow certain parts of the state to have self-service gas stations.

My Thursday, Feb 3 birthdate, which was the 34th day of the year in 1949 and it was the fifth Thursday of that year to date.There were 331 days left until year end. 

The next time, a calendar will match up to a 1949 calendar will be in 2033 when both calendars will be exactly the same.

Financially, saving 50 cents daily from age 7, would have amounted to $12,234 today, (no info on whether that included interest). This amount didn't seem large, but I can recall only saving pennies in my childhood...if I had only known to save high coin amounts.

My zodiac sign is Aquarius ♒ (the water-bearer) and it's well known thanks to a popular song by the 5th Dimension. 

Fifty years ago on March 15, 1969, Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In hit the Top 40 chart, reached No. 1 in April, and remained on the chart for 16 weeks. 

Since it's one of my favorite tunes and my birthday astrological sign, I hope you enjoy this throwback listen to the wonderful vocalizations of Marilyn McCoo, Florence LaRue, Billy Davis, Jr., Lamonte McLemore, and Ronald Townson.

Sadly, my 10th birthday in 1959, is known as The Day the Music Died (immortalized in singer Don McLean's 1971 epic American Pie song). That's when a plane crash took the lives of R&R legends Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper), Ritchie Valens; and pilot Roger Peterson near Moorhead, MN. Holly had chartered the plane because he was frustrated with tour bus conditions, traveling in freezing temps for hours at a time. The day before had been the 11th stop on a 24-city road tour in as many days -- with no days off.

Purple is my favorite color, so lucky for me that the February birthstone is amethyst. Bloodstone is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years. 

This purple quartz was used by ancient Greeks to ward off the tempting powers of Bacchus (also known as Dionysus), the god of intoxication and ecstasy. The amethyst was believed to make the wearer clear-headed, bringing clarity and awareness (really?). 

February birthdays are represented by violets and irises, both suggest loyalty and faithfulness. The three upright petals of an iris bloom can indicate courage, faith, wisdom, or friendship, hope and compliments. The violet, symbolizes modesty. According to Greek mythology, violets were created when one of Artemis’ nymphs, (all sworn to stay maidens) was being pursued by her twin brother, Apollo. To protect the nymph, Artemis transformed her into a violet, which led to the violet becoming a symbol of modesty. In the Victorian era, a gift of violets (or primroses) was a declaration of love.

A total of 27,024 days have elapsed since my birth until today. If I had been sleeping 8 hours daily daily, I would have slept a total of 9,008 days or 24.66 years. That's equal to spending 33% of my life sleeping. 

A full moon has occurred 915 times from my birth until today. The next visible full moon will be this weekend on Sunday, February 5.

Something new to me was the significance of my February 3, 1949 birth date;  the birthday numbers 2, 3, and 1949 reveal a Life Path Number of 1, which represents initiative, potential and singularity. 

Not a photo shy child

A Life Path Number is similar to a Sun Sign in astrology and  includes strengths, weaknesses, talents, and ambitions. Celebrities with the same life path number as myself include: Philip Jackson, Kasumi Arimura, Tom Hanks, Sagi Kalev, Jessica Tovey, Leman Sam, Maki Goto, Steven Wilson, Herbert Léonard, Nikki Sixx. If you're not familiar with many of these names, we're in the same ballpark as myself.

As many long-time blog readers know, Beatrice is a blog alias and my given name is Dorothy. Curious as to the popularity of that name in 1949, an online search showed it was not at the top of popular baby names. In February 1949, Linda was given to 91,016 baby girls; James was given to 86,855 baby boys. Other top female and male names that year were Mary-Robert, Patricia-John, Barbara-William, and Susan-Michael

My late father selected my name. Dorothy ranked #32, is a less common variant of Dorothea. It was one of the top 10 most popular names for girls in the U.S. between 1904 and 1940. It remained in the top 100 most popular names until 1961. 

Evelyn Knight

Curious about the No. 1 top song on Feb 3, 1949, an online search showed it was performed by Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters, a male vocal group that performed with some of the leading 1940s Big Bands. 

Knight was an American singer who, during a seven-year span in the late 1940s and 1950, had two No. 1 hits and 13 that made the Top 40. Knight recorded Powder Your Face with Sunshine which went to No.1. In 1948, she had a hit record, Buttons and Bows.

Here's the #1 pop song on my 1949 birth date, A Little Bird Told Me recorded by Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters. (Sorry, in advance, for any ear worms from this song and the Aquarius tune.)

This song was the top hit as of January 1949, stayed at the top of the charts for 7 weeks, and remained on the charts for a total of five months. 

Birthday Celebration? This year's will include a movie and lunch next week. Later in the month, there's a road trip here in NH to meet up with visiting long-time NJ friends. And, just because I could, there's a birthday gift to myself; show and tell in a future post. Do you treat yourself on your special day?

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone

Today will be frigid 🥶🧊 — single digits overnight, ice cream, anyone?