Blog 3293 – 11.07.202

What Was The News On The Day You Were Born?

I was rummaging in our attic yesterday, looking for treasures and found a box that contained some keepsakes. In a box with the blue paper scrubs that I wore in the hospital delivery room when my son was born were three completely yellowed newspapers, all dated April, 3, 1990. That is the day my son Jay ( Jonathan David James Wallace White) arrived. I bought those papers that day and put them away for him, thinking that someday he might like to read what was going on the day that he was born. I bought the two local papers that there were at the time, The Houston Post (last published April 18, 1995) and The Houston Chronicle (still in print) plus for a wider take on the national and world news I included a copy of The New York Times. I texted Jay a note with the above picture. He was thrilled that I saved those papers for him.

As Dale Carnegie wrote in his famous book How To Win Friends and Influence People, a person’s birthday is very important to them and when we remember it that makes us important to them as well. Jay is much better at being brief in texts than I am. I tend to think of texts as letters and try to “say it all” every chance I get. Like my father before me I am a story teller at heart and like to write them out as well. Jay is a great a detailed oral storyteller, but is usually quite sparse with his written words. His text in reply to mine was, “Cool. Thank you for saving them for me.”

I plan to give the April 3rd, 1990 newspapers to Jay this weekend plus a stuffed Barney chair that was his when he was a little guy. The chair is for Emma, his fifteen month old daughter, and the greatest granddaughter in the wide world to me. That is what every grandpapa worth his salt thinks of his own granddaughter.

Barney’s signature song starts, “I love you, you love me. Were a great big family…” You tell ‘em, Barney.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White