J's Cafe Nette

Archive for the ‘Happy Birthday!’ Category

To those who have served in the past, and those currently serving, our heartfelt thanks!

During the American Revolution, many important political discussions took place in the inns and taverns of Philadelphia, including the founding of the Marine Corps.

A committee of the Continental Congress met at Tun Tavern to draft a resolution calling for two battalions of Marines able to fight for independence at sea and on shore.

The resolution was approved on November 10, 1775, officially forming the Continental Marines.

Tweet This Post

The things you learn about someone because it’s their birthday.

It’s Frankie Avalon’s (of Venus fame) seventieth birthday today. The video below may well be his first television appearance, with none other than Jackie Gleason.

Have a look, you might just be surprised!

Tweet This Post

In Congress, July 4, 1776 – The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. – Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. – And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

- John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

This is the America I was proud to grow up in. This is the America we all remember. Let us not let anyone take away our freedoms by standing quiet and allowing them to do so. If we go down, we must do it as Americans and do it fighting to our last breath.

Tweet This Post

Tweet This Post

Tomorrow, Barbie will celebrate her fiftieth birthday.

Below is the first Barbie commercial ever aired, (1959). What fun to see it once more.

I remember well this exact doll, her clothes, and the red vinyl case which I so treasured.

She sure has aged well…doesn’t look a day over twenty.

Tweet This Post

Seventy four years ago today the man who would rock the music world and create lifelong memories for many was born.

Elvis may have left this earth all too soon but his music remains timeless.

Tweet This Post

Tweet This Post

Ninety years of service to their country and assistance to their allies deserves a bit of recognition.

But, while I admire all who have served and do serve admirably in this fine unit, one man caught my attention in this video. (One hundred and eleven years young and I can only imagine the wealth of historical knowledge he holds in his head.)

Warm regards to the RAF on this milestone birthday.

Tweet This Post

Wow, Little Richard is 75 years old today.

Courtesy of our kids, we had the opportunity to see him live last year and at 74, he gave an energetic, full performance. What a treat that was.

Here’s a little something I had never heard him perform. Hope you enjoy!

Tweet This Post

Thirty-nine years ago today at 10:40 am EST I gave birth to my firstborn, a son we named Sean.

I remember when the doctor said excitedly, “It’s a boy!” and I cried tears of joy as I glanced at the clock to see what time he arrived.

I remember the expression on your face, son, as the doctor held you up near my knees so I could see you.

I remember the catch in your Dad’s throat when I told him we had our boy and he said, “I know it!”

Through joys and heartaches I have always remembered that special moment of that special day and it wasn’t because of the pain, but because of the happiness.

Now you’re a husband and Dad yourself. Where has the time gone?

I will remember your birth and your sister’s birth as long as I live and savor every memory of each of those days.

Happy birthday, Son. We love you more now than we did that first day, if that’s possible.

Tweet This Post

Tweet This Post

“Right Wing Nuthouse celebrated it’s third anniversary yesterday. It is a daily stop for me as I find the commentary both insightful and enjoyable.

Today marks the third anniversary of Right Wing Nuthouse. Looking back on my humble, fumbling beginnings (and my even more humbling present) makes me realize how much and how little has changed in my life as well as the wide, wide world of blogs.

I am a little wiser today, a lot better informed and more circumspect in my language (believe it or not). I’m a little more cynical about some things, less so about others.

Happy (belated) birthday Mr. Moran and may you have many, many more.

Tweet This Post

Yesterday I told you about the ninth birthday of our second granddaughter Kelsey.

Today is our first granddaughter, Ashley’s tenth birthday.

Ashley was a bit over 8 pounds when she was born and she and her brother both had cheeks that looked as though they had apples stuffed in the sides of them for the longest time.

Ashley was born on her Dad’s birthday and, because they wanted her birth and later the birth of their son to be private for just them, we waited until we got the call she was here. I believe there were lots of calls to the room from me in the meantime, though.

I remember when we first walked in I saw my daughter in the bed, looking exhausted, and my son-in-law with a grip on that little baby I thought he was never going to release.

He finally asked me if I wanted to hold her and I held her in my arms for the very first time and fell in love with a baby for the second time in about 7 months. Our first grandson had been born the previous December, making us first time grandparents.

Ashley was kind of stubborn when it came to taking her pictures in utero, as she kept her legs crossed and kept us guessing her sex up until three days before she was born, at which time I took my daughter shopping to find suitable clothes to bring a little girl home from the hospital, and little girl things for her to have after she got home. Up until then everything was neutral, but we didn’t do a lot of pink.

Her coming home dress was blue with pink and white in it and a nice white collar.

She had the least amount of hair of all four of our grandchildren, but then her mother had the least amount of hair of the two of my children.

Ashley is also a very bright child who happened to have skipped second grade and has maintained an “A” average throughout school. She’ll start middle school in the fall (actually August) and will be the first of our grandchildren to graduate from high school and go on to college.

It’s good she skipped a grade because I had been fretting over how to be at hers and Patrick’s (our older grandson) graduations at the same time. (They live in different states.) Now I don’t have that problem.

Ashley has done ballet and swimming, but is mostly interested in swimming for leisure and not competition. She’s our book worm. She loves to read, so when middle school gave a reading assignment of 3 or 4 books for this summer she had them finished up in a couple of weeks.

Next, she’s on to do some community service work that is required by the time she gets through sixth grade. Her Dad has her lined up for something, but I don’t recall right now what it is. I do know by the time she’s finished she will have just 3 hours of community service to finish before she finishes sixth grade.

She and I have talked about it and I’ve suggested she go to a nursing home and visit and read to some of our elder citizens. She thinks that’s a good idea, but then anything her “Pooky” tells her is always a good idea.

Yes, I’m “Pooky” to her and her brother and my husband is “Da-ha”. I called all my grandchildren pumpkin from the time they were born and she translated pumpkin into “Pooky”. My husband’s first name is Don and when I said, “Let’s call Grandpa. Don!” for something one time while she was little she translated that into “Da”, which became “Da-ha”.

Thankfully our other grandchildren call us “Grandma” and “Grandpa”.

We are so very proud of every grandchild we have. Each is different from the others and we love each of them just for who they are.

It’s true that if I had known how much fun grandchildren would have been I would have had them first.

Happy birthday, Pumpkin, and to your Dad too!

Tweet This Post

Today our granddaughter Kelsey turned nine years old. My husband and I sang “Happy Birthday” in off-key voices to her early this morning.

Kelsey was born early and tipped the scales at a bit under six pounds, and, we found out late on the night of her birth, had a serious problem with her stomach and had to have emergency surgery the next day.

I got to Florida, where they then lived, shortly after her birth. When I entered her mother’s room Kelsey was lying at the doorway waiting to be wheeled out by the nurse to what I thought was the nursery. It actually was to be NICU. She couldn’t hold down any food.

Because I thought there would be plenty of opportunities to hold her I resisted and instead talked to her in her bassinette, telling her how much Grandma loved her. She made tiny sounds.

What a head of hair that baby had!

The next days were pure hell for me as I watched this tiny little life lying in a bassinette with tubes going into every conceivable place and then some. I was unable to do anything but hold her hand and stroke her head. Of course I kissed her, and of course I prayed to God she would be OK. I can only begin to imagine how my son and daughter-in-law felt. Her IQ has since been tested and found to be 146.

They even tested her for Down’s Syndrome because she slept with her thumbs in a different position from most babies, and it was then that our son and I christened her “Special K”. Fortunately, her mother didn’t know what the reason was for the DNA tests, and I wasn’t sure my son did at first.

I wasn’t able to hold her until my next visit, which was when she was three months old.

Today she is an accomplished prize-winning figure skater, she is a prize-winning cheerleader for a youth football team, she does Tai Kwon Do, and is a beautiful, smart, and healthy nine year old.

Excuse me for the personal post, but I want to wish our second born granddaughter, and third born grandchild a very, very happy birthday today.

Wait until tomorrow.

Tweet This Post

As for your gift, well these 1,100 citizens were polled and they would like to see you and the Vice President impeached.

Nearly half of the US public wants President George W. Bush to face impeachment, and even more favor that fate for Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a poll out Friday.
The survey by the American Research Group found that 45 percent support the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Bush, with 46 percent opposed, and a 54-40 split in favor when it comes to Cheney.

The study by the private New Hampshire-based ARG canvassed 1,100 Americans by telephone July 3-5 and had an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points. The findings are available on ARG’s Internet site

Here are the poll results. (You have to scroll down a bit)

These were primarily registered voters vs. likely voters..interesting.

Oh well, feeling as I do about polls, this falls in to the same category for me as the others..not very reliable. More importantly, it has been a pleasure to have a President who does not test to see which way the wind is blowing to decide how to govern.

While it is always nice to be the popular person in the room, it is much harder to be the one who has to often make unpopular decisions. I for one admire the majority of those decisions and admire the man who made them.

Happy 61st and may you enjoy many more.

Tweet This Post