Dickie's Fourth Birthday

Happy Birthday to my Dad!  He grew up in Bremerton, Washington and I just came across these photos from his fourth birthday party taken at their house on High Ave. in August 1940 (I thought they'd complement my Fifth Birthday Party and my sister, Kristi's Third Birthday party quite well)

"Who's four years old today?!"  "Yer lookin' at 'im!"



"Eat your sandwiches before we cut the cake!"

My Dad's brother, Billy, is two boys to the right from my Dad. I know he was allergic to eggs for part of his childhood.  I don't know how long, but it might be why there are two cakes on the table for nine boys.  My Grandmother, Stella Fredrickson Hawes, gave me this recipe when I learned my own son had life-threatening allergies to milk, eggs, peanuts, and treenuts, (among other things)
Crazy Cake
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoons soda
6 Tablespoons cocoa
Sift all together. Make three holes. In one put 1 Tablespoon vinegar, in another 1 teaspoon vanilla and the last 5 Tablespoons oil.  Over whole thing pour 1 cup cold water. Mix until smooth. Bake in moderate oven. 





A birthday coin!


Child sized garden tools


And one of my favorite photos.  A birthday parade!



Obviously this is a few years later (twenty six to be exact) - but we're back in Bremerton at his parent's house on Preble Street celebrating my Dad's thirtieth birthday. Mom made all our shirts.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Girl Scouts 100th Birthday

I started as a Brownie in 3rd Grade and flew up to Girl Scouts the next year. I was in a troop through Juniors, Cadettes and Seniors - all the way through my sophomore year in high school. Memorable times  include taking two vans down to National Center West in Ten Sleep, Wyoming between my 7th and 8th grade year where we met Girl Scouts from around the country and sailing and sleeping on an 101 foot schooner, The Adventuress with my troop.

My daughter joined Brownies also in third grade and went through 6th grade in her Junior troop. I was a leader for part of the time and sewed my patches from back-in-the day in the early to mid 70s along with new Girl Scout patches I acquired on my leader denim shirt

(Food Allergy friends - note FAAN's PAL Girl Scout Patch! No one in the troop had anaphylactic allergies but they still were very supportive in learning about food allergies)

Girl Scouts provided many fun and meaningful memories for both me and my daughter.

Life Magazine featured The Girl Scouts March 24th, 1952 to celebrate Girl Scout's 40th birthday. Check it out on Google Books here You'll find the start of the article on page 108 (if you're not familiar with how to navigate this site, if the "next" doesn't show up in your window in a yellow bar then select the article "Girl Scouts, 40th Birthday 108" from the drop down menu where it probably says "Front Cover".

I've come across a couple of ads featuring Girl Scouts

Dromedary Angel Food Cake mix "Inspired by the historic recipe used in the Birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, Founder of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America"

January 23, 1956 Life Magazine
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"The Asphalt Institute salutes the Girl Scouts of the U. S. A. who are this month celebrating their 45th birthday."

March 25th, 1957 Life Magazine

I'm proud to have been part of the Girl Scout program and wish the organization a very Happy Centennial Birthday.

Oreo Cookies

A TV commercial alerted me to the fact that Oreo cookies are celebrating their 100th birthday.

Wikipedia and Twitter indicates that their special day is today March 6th.

So Happy Centennial Birthday, Oreo!

I'm posting some 1960s vintage ads to celebrate you (because that's just how I roll).
I can't find any information why these are called "NEW OREO" The cookie imprint design changed in 1952 according to the above Wikipedia link.

January 11, 1960 Life Magazine

January 13, 1961 Life Magazine

January 4, 1963 Life Magazine

I enjoyed these vintage commercials on Youtube


Neither one of these have the jingle I remember: "A kid'll eat the middle of an Oreo first. And save the chocolate cookie outside for last!"

Personally, I appreciate that U.S. Oreos do not contain milk, egg or nuts.

So thank you and Happy Birthday!

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Chocolate!

"All you really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt" 

- Charles Schultz
I'm loving the vintage chocolate ads!  And Valentine's Day is a great day for giving and receiving some.
Mars Bar

February 21, 1955 Life Magazine

January 1955 Life Magazine

January 1957 Life Magazine

February 1957 Life Magazine

March 1957 Life Magazine

Milky Way

March 7, 1955 Life Magazine

February 1955 Life Magazine

Brach's
 
February 21, 1955 Life Magazine


February 1957 Life Magazine

Baby Ruth

February 1962 Life Magazine

Whitman's

February 1962 Life Magazine

Nabisco

February 1, 1963 Life Magazine

A bit of a caveat - many of you know I'm very active in the food allergy community.  So I am quite aware that a little chocolate CAN  hurt if it contains or has been contaminated with an ingredient like milk or nuts that a loved one is allergic to.  However, unless your allergy is to chocolate itself - "a little SAFE chocolate  now and then can't hurt".

Food Allergy Walk - Kyle Dine Event August, 22, 2009

The second annual Seattle area Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Walk was at Warren G. Magnuson Park August 22, 2009. It raised over $35,000 for FAAN - a non-profit based in Virginia that supports research and education for life-threatening food allergies and anaphylaxis.

Our Seattle area support group, WA-FEAST sponsored musician Kyle Dine to come in from Ontario for the day. I got to "chauffeur" him and this gave me even more time to spend with him and his delightful girlfriend. Immediately following the FAAN Walk, he gave a concert for the younger children. Then later in the afternoon he facilitated a team building event for Tweens and Teens about food allergy management and then early evening several of us kayaked at Lake Washington. It was a memorable day. Kyle Dine empowers children, teens and young adults through his music and his workshops. He is a LOT of fun and I realized during the day that I had really high expectations of what he would be like and he did not disappoint!

And even his last name is empowering to those with life-threatening food allergies!

He gave me permission to use one of his songs for a slideshow of the day:

Peanut-Controlled-Zone at Safeco Field

From Peanut Controlled Zone - 2008

The first ever peanut-free section at Safeco Field was August 5th. This has been something I would have loved even more a decade and a half ago starting at the Kingdome but I was thrilled the Mariner's became the fifth MLB team to offer this. We have been to games but it's very stressful wading ankle deep in something so prevalent at a ballpark that can cause a severe reaction to your loved one. And then there's the decontamination process before you get in the car so as not to bring it in to your home. At previous games, kind ushers moved us to remote sections of the Kingdome and Safeco so we weren't completely surrounded by flying peanut dust.
But this game we could relax and enjoy! I actually giggled several times after dropping my sweater on the ground and picking it up finding it not infested with peanut skins! (Yes, it was waaay too warm to wear it but the Girl Scout in me wanted to "be prepared" in case it cooled after sun down).

From Peanut Controlled Zone - 2008

The media was there which always makes me wary since they can (and have) turn allergy parents into a very nasty story. But the media and the Mariners all seemed very enthusiastic about this section! Our section ushers were awesome! They acted like bouncers - there had been many threats posted about intentionally bringing massive quantities of peanuts to cause harm to peanut allergic children since this was a ridiculous issue to them.

From Peanut Controlled Zone - 2008

It was also my Dad's birthday - we showed up at four (three hours before game time and an hour before the gates opened) to preview the section with the event organizer since the Mariners really wanted to know if they did everything right. Since we had loads of time before the game, we had a leisurely dinner at Hit It Here Cafe and watched batting practice . It was a BEAUTIFUL night for baseball and the Mariners even won their third straight beating the Twins 8-7!

From Peanut Controlled Zone - 2008