Happy Birthday!

You get to a certain age, and you start becoming too aware of the clock - tick, tock, tick, tock. Time seems to gather momentum and speed up, no matter how hard you try to apply the brakes. Tempus fugit, as the Romans would have said. You realize you are no longer growing up, more like "growing down."

Therefore, since anything is possible in Blogworld, decided to reverse the seemingly inexorable March of Time, at least in the parallel cyber-world in which we all live these days. No need to resort to Black Holes, Worm Holes, travel at the speed of light, and other such theoretical devices to take us back to the past. Such is supposed to be possible, but I leave that to far greater intellects - Einstein and Stephen Hawking come to mind. Uh, yes, realize Dr. Einstein is no longer with us, at least in this Universe. Maybe the Time Travelers will run into him - hopefully not run him over - as they Time Warp in their Delorean. In the end, as good Dr. Einstein might have put it, "all is relative." And thus I enjoyed my first birthday, at LaCret Street, Number 378, Santo Suarez neighborhood, Havana, Cuba...surrounded by loving relatives - and neighbors, and friends -
I'll make this easy for you - you do the math: May 1951. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. I looked somewhat bewildered - perhaps thinking all these noisy, happy people around me were actually wild, tribal types, getting ready to stick me in a cooking pot, the cake being the bait they had so dastardly used to entrap a poor little boy...OK, letting my imagination run a bit wild here. At that age, one probably does not have any idea what these rituals are all about, except for an innate or instinctive understanding that...cake is GOOD!


Seems someone forgot to put balloons or a sign outside to let the partygoers and revelers know where the festivities were being held, however - so stop right there and knock on the door! Come on in, it's time to whack the pinata...come to think of it, don't remember a pinata that day...don't remember anything, actually. Thank God for these little snatches of light we capture in photographs, which enable us to travel back to a fun day, and perhaps jog memory a little bit.

Oops! Looks like we Time Warped inadvertently - that's birthday Number Two, but same venue. Again, you can do the math...that looks like mischievous cousin Fernando, dapperly dressed - get a load of the tie - also notice how he's positioned himself strategically, next to the cake...wonder if the cake was from La Gran Via, a great bakery from whence many tasty birthday and other ocassion treats came to many Havana households. La Gran Via years later went into exile, continuing successfully to cater to the sweet tooth, in Miami. Not Miami, Ohio. Miami as in F-L-A.

And a year later, the Last Birthday in LaCret Street...The kid looks particularly happy - is it because he has the cake all to himself?

Time warp again, a few years into the future...your bloggin' Taurus found himself accompanied by another little Taurus, in a place and time far from Havana. But one thing they were found to have in common: The Enjoyment of Cake.
The fruit does not fall far from the tree, does it? Except it appears daughter was messier than father. But, who cares? As Marie Antoinette said, "let them eat cake!"

Maybe someday the two of us could pose for a photograph in front of LaCret 378, holding a cake, then diving into it. 'Cause you can't have your cake and eat it too, you know...

And to all of you Tauruses of Havana, and everywhere else, for that matter - Happy Birthday!! May you be blessed with the best birthday gifts one can have: Loving family, loving friends, good health, and, last but not least; in fact, most important, God's blessings.