It’s My Birthday!!!

Jan 26, 2013

One time, I heard comedian Richard Pryor say,
“You don’t get to be old being no fool!”

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My mother says, before I was born, she thought she could predict whether I was going to be a boy or a girl. She predicted I would be a boy. She also thought I would be her last child. Therefore, she decided to name me after my father. I was to be John Louis Washington, Jr.

After my birth at 7:51 on the morning of January 26th 1950, it was confirmed that I was a girl. However, my mother decided to just go ahead and name me John Washington anyway. She did change my middle name to Ann. My official birth records said, ‘Child’s Name: John Ann Washington.’ . . .

The year I was born, 1950, the price of a new car was around $1,750 and the average price of a new house was about $14,500. A loaf of bread was 14 cents and milk was 82 cents a gallon. A first class stamp was 3 cents and the minimum wage was 75 cents per hour.

This is also the year the president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, ordered the construction of the hydrogen bomb. Television was still a relatively new invention. A new table model would have cost about $200, which was a lot of money for my family. My family would not own a TV until a few years later. We also did not own a car at this time . . . [excerpt "You Don't Know Crazy"]

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63 years later, I’m still standing! Happy Birthday to ME!!!