Friday my Dad, Bob or RAM, had his 95th birthday. My brother, Carter, called him RAM. He said he could not go around the office calling him "Dad", so RAM came from his initials. And it stuck and many to this day still call him RAM.
I had to come up with something special for his big birthday so I went thru a lot of my photos to make a two-sided photo "Birthday Mobile". The photo above was taken of him at the age of six with his lunch basket.
32 photos hung from ribbons that were attached to a thin bamboo stick that rested on the top of the dining room light fixture.
There was a gap of a few years since many of the photos I shot were slides.
"RAM" in Alaska on a salmon fishing trip with Carter.
In 1948, he put the radio station KBUN on the air in Bemidji, Minnesota and that is where my parents met. My mom had here first teaching job there, fresh out of school from Miss Woods Teaching College in Minneapolis. They would have breakfast at the same diner and that is when Bob spotted Lorraine. The rest is history. They will celebrating their 69th anniversary this June!
His 68th birthday at our first house in San Miguel de Allende.
I found THE perfect cocktail napkin for the occasion, Happy Birthday Handsome! I had planned a dinner party for Friday and Saturday night.
The first night we had Mushroom Croustades and mixed nuts for appetizers. Followed by a Caesar salad and a roasted poblano stuffed with shrimp, zucchini, onion and cheese that sat on a roasted tomato, roasted red pepper, cilantro and garlic sauce.
One thing I especially enjoy when entertaining is setting an unusual table. I bought these talavera shallow bowls (all with a different scene) in Seville, Spain and I found the vintage linens at an outdoor antique market in Aix de Provence, France.
One of my favorite desserts, Coffee-Toffee-Chocolate Torte, that serves 14 to 16. You can find this recipe on by post dated August 18, 2016. The best part of this recipe, besides being sinfully delicious, is that you can make it a week in advance!
My Dad and George have known each other for around 40 years. Back then, my Dad had the agency, Mullen Advertising and Public Relations in Scottsdale. George was one of his clients and he created a very successful logo for George's commercial real estate company, Illif Thorn and Co. Now my parents are living in Denver and George and his wife are here too. Great stories were told that evening.
Saturday's dinner party, we started with shrimp cakes and a Shiracha mayo sauce and these zucchini rolls filled with a herbed goat cheese.
A different venue for Saturday's table setting... Mexican plates from Dolores Hidalgo, Mexican wine glasses from San Miguel de Allende, bobble-head horses and cowboys from the Friday market in Patzcuaro, ceramic black and white chickens from Ametenango del Valle in the state of Chiapas and hand-carved wood donkeys from San Miguel. Pretty festive.
The menu that night was a salad, creamy cornbread cooked in my dad's mother's cast iron skillet right out of the oven and grilled chicken sitting on a bed of julienned, sauteed jicama with a jalapeno vinegar cream sauce. And of course, the Coffee-Toffee-Chocolate Torte.
Fred and Suzy composed a tremendous two page poem commemorating my dad's life. Very cleverly written.
And to top it off , they even made a large poster for him with stickers and such nice praise, "Radio, out doors man, equestrian, Taurus, Adman, writer, dove hunter, excellence, wit, Mexico, Lorraine, nifty, exceptional, responsible, old school, bone fide, educated, reliable, teddy bear, accomplished, elegant writing, magnificent, unsurpassed, effervescent, nice guy." Suzy said, that 100 years old will even be better.
It was a great birthday weekend and thank you all for the birthday cards and Facebook greeting! He loved every minute of it.
Looks like a most wonderful birthday for Mr. Handsome and fine family. Hugs, D
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