Hartley Neita, ContributorMY PARENTS were blessed with love, if not with riches. I knew this from an early age, yet I was angry with them for years because they never gave me a special birthday present. They gave each other birthday presents. My brothers and sister also enjoyed receiving happy birthday gifts. But me? Never.
You see, my birthday fell exactly halfway between Christmas and New Year days. So on Christmas morning, I received a toy from Santa Claus, and one Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday gift. I compensated for this by boasting to my siblings that I shared the birth time of the Lord, and that was the greatest blessing of all.
LOVE SERENE
Deep inside me, however, I felt I got second class treatment. Not true, of course. It was just jealousy. So, I still remember my first birthday gift. A girl I dated gave me a Christmas present and to my surprise, she gave me joy again on my birthday by presenting me with a birthday package. It was a hair brush and comb (I had a heavy head of hair then), with the words: "To Hartley, darling - From... (Yu too faas; me nah tell yu har name.) And what made it very special, too, was that the inscription was circled with a heart. Love serene.
As I created my separate family and increased an ever-growing circle of friends in later years, I began to receive my own birthday gifts. I have discovered, however, that being called on the phone at the crack of dawn, or being circled by friends and hear them singing the happy birthday song, swell my heart with joy. To also receive a call from friends who share this special day with me is also wonderful. Or as took place this year, joining a friend of years - who also celebrates this date - at lunch with a group of mutual friends, is also a wonderful feeling.
SILENT RESOLUTIONS
For some 20 years, too, Prime Minister Patterson has been hosting an annual Christmas party, first at his private home in his capacity as chairman of his party, and now at Vale Royal, his official residence. By co-incidence, this party has been held on my birthday, or close to it. Each year, I thank him for hosting my party, and each year he graciously says he is happy to do so. All in good fun.
New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are another matter in which I have never really got involved. In recent years, I have spent the eve with friends, conversationally reflecting. I regard the parties and balls as artificial celebrations with the shouting and screaming of Happy New Year greetings. Each year, too, I make silent resolutions, some of which I have kept. Others I have forgotten in the cold light of reality. There is a tradition that whatever you do at the turning time from the Eve to New Year's Day, you will keep doing all year. That, my friends, is rum talk. Do not believe it.
And guys, by the way, be careful of the public places where you choose to pledge your troth with passionate new year kisses. Many men there have been whose photographs appear in living colour in the newspapers and on television.
"If I had only known when
They rue - I was kissing the
beautiful Gwen
That two days later,
It would be published
in the paper.
And there would be no more
laughter in me yard
When me wife see it,
Oh me Lawd!"
