Birthday Traditions

My mother was a great "event planner" when we were growing up.  She made every birthday a wonderful experience. She would do some major pre-planning and every cake was made from scratch.  She took so much joy in making each cake a "work of art". 

This is my 4th birthday.  For our birthday she would also make us our favorite meal.  I chose fried chicken most of the time.

My 5th birthday.  I truly remember this cake because of the clowns on it.  I thought they were so cool looking.  She also made a cake for my doll.  My sister and I seem to be really engrossed in whatever my present was.

I remember this birthday because she made each of my friends their own birthday cookie.  

Living on a farm makes your birthday celebrations simple.  We would always invite my friends over to the farm and would play outside, sometimes we'd play softball.  

I remember this party because we went roller skating and had a sleepover.  Lots of giggles.

Even in high school my Mom was there with those special touches to make my birthday special.  Just a few friends over after school for pizza and cake.

The 4 MKMs

 The 4 MKMs 

Michael Keith Meredith

Mitchell Kim Meredith

Melody Kay Meredith

Michelle Kathleen Meredith

It was our Mom's idea to name us all with our names starting with M and K.  Little did she know how much trouble that would cause when she and Dad would get mad or in a hurry and would run through all the names before they got to the one they wanted. 

My brother, Kim, would always get mail for a girl.  He never was crazy about his name.  

None of us were named after any one in the family.  

This is my sister and I with our childhood friends from the tiny town of Foosland.  Kim Sommer, Kathy and Beth Shields.  This was a birthday party for me and we always found something fun to do outside.  Even though we lived out in the country we always had friends over to play with.

Our cousins lived on the farm next door (about a mile away).  Robert was my age and John was Kathy's age.  She and I would ride our bikes over to their place to play.  We also had a friend named Luanne Lahr that lived a couple of miles away and we would go over there to play.  I remember the sound that my bike tires made when riding on the hot asphalt roads in the summer.  We would never wear shoes and would come home with tar all over the bottoms of our feet.  Mom would send us to the garage to wash our feet with gasoline.

I went to Kindergarten in Gibson City, but then went to a small school in Foosland from Grades 1-4.  It had Grades 1 and 2 in one classroom; Grades 3 and 4 in one classroom and upstairs they had one classroom of Fifth Grade.  The cafeteria was also upstairs.  If we didn't eat all of our lunch then we had to wait to go outside to recess.

Mrs. Beasley was the teacher I remember having.  I loved school and would always play school at home with my sister.  We loved having fire drills because we got to go upstairs and slide down the fire escape (the metal tube on the outside of the building).  At the end of each school year we would have a all school picnic and got to have soda with our sack lunch.  

Since we lived on a farm it was logical that Keith and Kim would be interested in 4-H.  They raised calves and pigs and would show them at the Ford County 4-H Fair.  They both were expected to help on the farm with chores and in the fields.  They knew how to drive a tractor before a car.  

I don't remember being kissed goodnight or getting lots of hugs from our parents.  They weren't raised that way, but I always knew they loved us.  

The boys would always get into wrestling matches and it usually would take a turn for the worst and you would hear Dad say "Get me the yardstick."  That wasn't good.  Sometimes he would open the door and make them take it out into the yard.  

Even though we didn't have a lot of money, Mom and Dad would always try to take family trips that were close to home.  This is a picture taken at Starved Rock in Illinois.  We would go to the zoo and museums in Chicago and St. Louis and to Missouri to visit the cousins.  

When Kathy and I were in high school Dad had planned a trip to Disney World and we chose to go on a trip with our school choir to Chicago instead.  In retrospect, that was a very selfish choice on our parts.  We didn't know what we missed out on.  

Keith started to go to Junior College to study being a mechanic.  He always enjoyed working on vehicles.  He currrently is a truck driver in Missouri.  

Kim was the farmer at heart.  Lived in Missouri for a while and worked on Grandpa Meredith's farm.  Moved back to Illinois and worked as a farmhand for the Shields family.

After I went to college and moved to Virginia/Maryland and taught aerobics/exercise classes and worked for Southland (7 Eleven).  Now I work part-time as a secretary in an elementary school.

After high school Kathy almost went into the USO with the Army.  Her boyfriend was in the Army at the time.  Luckily she had a change of heart at the last minute.  Kathy worked at a department store after high school and then worked for a bank when her children were older.  

Mary Margaret Burge - My Mother

This is the only picture I have of Mom as a baby.  My Grandpa Dewey Burge, Mom, and Grandma Maude Clifton

I love this picture.

Mom and her brother, Ralph

This is the farm that my Mom lived on for many years.  Her Dad was a sharecropper on this property.  I can remember playing in that barn when I was small.  This house never had running water in it.  There was an outhouse in the back yard we used.  The whole house was heated by a coal burning stove in the living room.  In the kitchen was a coal stove and a water pump at the sink.

My Mom and Dad when they were dating in high school.

This is my brother Keith, Mom, Grandma Burge and Great Grandma Clifton.

My brothers Kim and Keith and Mom is pregnant with me in 1956.

This is the farm we lived on in Foosland, Illinois.  We lived there from the time I was 4 until 1969, when we moved into Gibson City, Illinois.  Not sure how much my Mom enjoyed being married to a farmer.  It was definitely hard for her when money was short.  She did like to go shopping.   My Mom was a great cook.  She could really bake some awesome goodies.  She made our birthday cakes from scratch and decorate them herself.  Holiday baking was immense.  Lots of different cookies, fudge, candy.  This is stark contrast to her mothers cooking.  When we would go to their house for holiday dinners it was boiled chicken, potatoes, noodles.  Nothing fancy.

My sister, Kathy, Mom, and I.  This was in my Mom's apartment in Champaign, Illinois after she divorced my Dad.  She worked at the Univeristy of Illinois in the Agricultural Department.  She really didn't enjoy living alone.  I stayed with her when not at college.

My Mom loved to do crafts.  She would sew Barbie clothes for our dolls.  She never trusted herself to sew our clothes though.  She could crochet and she learned how to towle paint.  She loved to go dancing.  She would always plant flowers outside her apartment patio and they would be pansies, just like her Mom grew at the farmhouse.  

Glenn James Meredith - My Dad

GLENN JAMES MEREDITH

Ethel, Glenn and Ernest Meredith

Robert on the left and Glenn on the right with their cousins.  Notice how my dad, Glenn, is standing with his hand on his hip.  That is something I distinctly remember him doing when he was an adult.  

Glenn, Ernest, Miriam, Robert

My Dad never talked about his children in specifics.  I remember once he told us that for Christmas all he got was a piece of slate and chalk.  Being a farmer was not an easy life and he and his brother, Robert, had to help out on the farm from a young age. 

 This is my dad in high school.  Not sure how much he really enjoyed school.  I know he would have preferred to be on a tractor somewhere.  He did meet my mom, Margaret Burge at school though.  When they were first married he was a farmer.  He and his brother and his father had formed a corporation under which they did their farming.  We raised cattle as well as growing crops of corn and soy beans.

I loved being raised on a farm.  I loved to drive the tractor/wagon to feed the cattle.  Mom and I and my sister would always take dinner out to dad in the field when they would be in the field long hours out planting and harvesting.

We, as children, had no idea how little we had compared to others, but our parents always managed to keep us in nice clothes and be able to give us birthday presents and Christmas presents.

I remember my parents spending many weekends playing pinochle with friends.
They had so much fun.

While I was in high school our town celebrated its Centennial.  My dad was asked to help with the production of the pageant since he worked at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts at the University of Illinois.  He worked as a stage hand, sound board, scenery,  He loved this job so much.  I remember my high school spanish class going there to see Don Quixote on stage and my Dad gave us all a tour back stage after the show.  I remember him taking me with him so I could see shows from the wings.  I remember watching Duke Ellington and Charlie Brown.  So exciting.  Probably when I got the theatre bug.  

My Dad had a soft spot in his heart for this country.  He loved his God, his Country, and his family.  He was easily moved to tears when listening to patriotic music and hymns.  He loved his children was always wanting them to have religion in their lives.  I remember getting him interested in genealogy work and he really took off with it.