My Easter Birthday

Easter 1951: Susan Nicklet, Mary (Lewis) Nicklet (mother), and Nancy Nicklet.
Photographed in all likelihood by Robert Nicklet (father).

Here I am in 1951--four years old. The back of the photograph says that it is Easter, and my sister Nancy and I are definitely looking at our Easter baskets from that year, though we don't seem overly impressed. Easter Sunday in 1951, I have just verified, fell on March 25, so I must have actually been four years old minus two days for this picture. I believe the photo must have been taken in the living room of our house on Chestnut Street in Sidney, Ohio, a house of which I have only a handful of real, lasting  memories, for we moved from that home to a new house on Campbell Road within a year or so. 

It was probably a few years later, when I became school age, that I learned that Easter was a movable holiday, dependent on natural forces and religious traditions that I did not understand. Easter did not come again in March until 1959, when it fell on March 29--two days after my birthday. Perhaps it was that year that I found a table that showed when Easter Sunday would fall for years in the future.  It was not as easy then as looking on the Internet. I wanted to find out if my birthday, March 27, would ever coincide with Easter Sunday in my lifetime.

Over the years I forgot the answer, because it wasn't going to happen for a long, long time. This year, Easter Sunday coincided with my birthday--for the first time, I thought--but when I went back to the Easter calendar, I discovered that it had happened once before, as recently as 2005. 

I have no recollection of the 2005 birthday and Easter. We were living in Spain then, in Roquetas de Mar. It was before I started writing my blog Sundays in Spain, and before I had found the handy-dandy Spanish agendas that I used as a datebook and diary (starting in 2006, I discovered to my chagrin when I went looking for them today). Perhaps this was the year that we went to some of the traditional Spanish Semana Santa observances in our small town, or maybe we took a bike ride along the seacoast to Aguadulce that day. At any rate, I am sure that "we" were just my husband and myself, none of my birth family.

Yesterday I was blessed to be in the heart of family; my three sisters and cousins Kathy and Katy and John all assembled at Nancy's for a lovely spring luncheon of quiche, hearty salads, eggs, angel food birthday cake and fruit, and a bunch of other extras, too. Nancy brought forth a handful of old family photos, mostly of her and myself. One was the print of the digitized photo above, now 65 years old. I remember that when as a child I first checked on Easter dates and learned when Easter would fall on my birthday, I had thought, "But I'll be an old lady by then!"

So I guess by my older standard I was an old lady yesterday, and am an even older one today! But I am not yet as old as I will be the next time Easter falls on my birthday: 2027. Now, there is a propitious year for a March 27 Easter birthday. And if I make it that far--I probably will be an old lady by then. 

The Mind Set To Rhythm

Two members of the Cincinnati-based music group The Mind Set To Rhythm did a marvelous thing yesterday. They came to sing and play a private farewell concert for my dear brother-in-law Phil in the hospice facility where he has been since last Monday.

Just two weeks ago three members of the group had shown up at St. John's Unitarian Universalist Church to play "Lady Bird," a modern jazz classic by Tadd Dameron, specially requested by Phil, as the offertory. Phil knows a lot about jazz and its intricate structures, and loves it, and this was the way he chose to say thank you and farewell to the church friends who had been a special part of his life for the last several years. In addition to "Lady Bird" that Sunday, we were treated to Cole Porter's  "Night and Day" after the service, and that got the entire congregation up dancing.

Yesterday there was no dancing, but Will played on the keyboard and Molly sang "All of You," "Embraceable You,"  and "My Funny Valentine," and concluded again with "Night and Day." Phil enjoyed the music more than the lyrics of most pieces, but the lyrics of these classic love songs seemed particularly poignant at this time. Nancy held Phil's hand, while he and Abie (their lovable and loving bundle of dog fur) snuggled quietly together. It truly seemed that Phil could hear the music, and once or twice his feet fluttered on the bedsheets as if in dance.

I had intended to link the songs to their lyrics or to a suitable video, but after much exploration I could not choose among the numerous renditions of these classics. Just as well, as probably no version could compare to the feeling in Phil's room yesterday as a lovely young couple sang for my sister and her husband as they approached the "till death do us part" part of the vows they had made together nearly 40 years earlier.

And I have been playing with the words of the band, The Mind Set To Rhythm. Phil had an incredible mind that he often set to music and rhythm (yesterday we were still trying to figure out his explanation of the "flatted fifth," and Molly helped us). Just as often he set his mind to the question of time and quantum physics, as well as a myriad of other interests, occasionally including history and the social studies that he taught for many years. And as the end approached he set his mind with determination and marched onward, and we are all the richer for having shared a piece of the journey with him.

An OLLI Sampler

I have written about OLLI before, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute for senior learning, held in this city by the University of Cincinnati, and in other cities by other entities. The Winter 2016 session is coming to a close, but I cannot let it fade away (to be replaced by the Spring session, whose catalog has already arrived in the mail and online) without acknowledging my gratitude for the way it enriches my life. I did not sign up for any weekly courses this term; instead I selected a whole slew of one-session lectures on various topics. These lectures are held at three different locations in the city: Adeth Israel on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 12:10 to 1:30; Sycamore Senior Center on Wednesdays, from 9:30 to noon; and Llanfair Retirement Center on Friday mornings from 9:30 to noon. I have been busy one or more days for the last seven weeks (minus the two that I was out of town on vacation). This weekend I cleaned out my winter handbag in preparation for exchanging it for a spring bag, and in the process I pulled out scraps of notes from a number of my OLLI lectures. I'm one of those people who  learns and remembers best by taking notes, on paper or on the iPad, but I rarely go back to read the notes again. Glancing through these however, was a pleasant reminder of the diversity of topics to which I had been exposed this term.

The Freestore Foodbank is the granddaddy of food kitchens in Cincinnati, having begun 45 years ago. It employs 115 individuals and is supported by 9200 volunteers to serve customers in 20 counties in the tri-state area via 250 food pantries. 70% of its customers are working, but not earning enough to purchase proper food for their families. Federal guidelines say that "food salvage businesses" of this type should allow customers to acquire food sufficient for three days; the Freestore Foodbank aims for 7 days.

I heard about the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and how it distributes aid around the world in times of disaster while maintaining a policy of impartiality and neutrality. The local unit of the national society of the American Red Cross has been particularly effective in  tracking family members of refugees and Holocaust victims. Our speaker asserted that 91 cents of every donated dollar goes to direct client services, which is a higher figure than for many charities. We also learned of the four Geneva Conventions that haste defined rights during armed conflict.

This week I was uplifted by a three-hour program of live music:. We started off with the Queen City Klezmorim, who played a fabulous collection of in turn haunting and happy klezmer songs on the clarinet, violin, tuba and bass, piano, and drums. Then on to the Marzan Brass Quintet, who started out with "Down by the Riverside" and included a number of other tunes, some as old as the late middle ages. I was seated in the second row and was really intrigued to be able to watch the three fingers of the trumpet player synchronize perfectly to play true notes.  The Highlandaires concluded the program, and though I had to leave early, I enjoyed this nine-piece dance band and walked out to the strains of "When the Saints Go Marching In."

I also had notes from a full morning talk about the wonders of growing plants indoors without soil: hydroponics. I learned almost as much about the nutrients needed for good plant health as I know about nutrition for humans. We also saw a hydroponic installation at the LLanfair center, where the chefs use herbs in their kitchen. This was an import ant presentation, because although I was attracted to the idea of growing herbs indoors in an apparatus like the one we saw, I had to admit that I was not up to the rigors of managing the indoor farm on a daily basis--thus saving myself an outlay of $1000 or so and another opportunity to feel guilty about my imperfections.

I think I have pretty much moved away from the public speaking that I had to do during the height of my career, thank goodness, but I still enjoyed a presentation on "Be a Better Speaker in (Almost) One Easy Lesson." The moderator modeled her tips perfectly and held my attention so well that I had no need to take notes, but I did enjoy the excellent half-page handout she distributed at the end of her talk and will keep it in mind if I have the opportunity to speak in any of my volunteer groups.

I attended a short lecture on "Mature Driving" a couple weeks ago and learned that I-75 opened in 1959 through downtown Cincinnati, with a median strip of trees that lasted a half year before dying of gas fumes. There is an ALICE disaster preparation session this week, to which I am looking forward with trepidation, as well as  something called "England Inside Out" and a session on the "Value of Art," postponed from one of the snow days in the term.

I'm already scanning the catalog for the next term of OLLI courses and preparing for exposure to some things that I never ever imagined I would be able to learn about so easily.