Sunday, April 29, 2007

Birthday Week

I found this fun meme on Marigold's blog while I was looking at her Hogwarts swap socks. She's making Ravenclaw socks out of Koigu! Maybe they're for me?

1. Go to Wikipedia and enter your birthday without the year:
May 3

2. List 3 events that occurred that day:

  • 1960 - The Anne Frank House opened in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. On my way back home after 9 weeks in England I arrived in Amsterdam for my charter flight home with about $40 and no credit cards. I thought I had a place to stay for the weekend, but the people had gone out of town. I had to find a hotel room cheap. I walked for blocks looking for a room. After paying for the room I had enough money to take the canal trip to see Anne Frank's house and a shuttle to the airport, but not much extra. I had a wheel of Jarlsburg cheese that I had bought at Harrod's to take home, and I bought some tomato juice and a book to read. I ate nothing but that cheese for the whole weekend so I could visit the Anne Frank house. It was a powerful experience for me and I recommend it to anyone who visits Amsterdam. I missed the Rijksmuseum with the Rembrandts, Vermeers and Van Goghs to see the house. I have never been able to stomach Jarlsburg cheese from that day to this (over 30 years).
  • 1916 - Easter Rising leaders are executed in Dublin. There is a wonderful movie about this event available on DVD, but the name escapes me right now.
  • 1937 - Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. When I was 15, I was reading this book (not for the first time) in my bed after midnight. I was reading about the Klan attack where Scarlett's husband was killed. My dad came upstairs to see why I was crying. All I could say was "Frank died". He was reassured and left me alone. This is the father who read the encyclopedia when he was growing up because that was all he had to read. One of my favorite books.

3. List 2 important birthdays.

4. List 1 death:

1152 - Matilda of Boulogne, Queen of England (b. 1105) Empress of Germany, mother of Henry II, second husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and grandmother of Richard the Lionheart and King John.

5. List one holiday or observance:

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Margie! Have you got your Sockapalooza Pal details? :)

I'm impressed you managed all that on $40.

Hope you have a fabulous birthday!

SSP