Birth Daze

Today, our family is heading off to Jen's ancestral hometown, in Michigan's 'Thumb' (and don't you wish your state had a 'thumb'?).Truth to tell, before I married Jen, the Thumb was just about the only part of Michigan that I hadn't seen in the two-decades-plus of my life to that point.  The first time I went home with her, I sorta figured out why; I was. . . underwhelmed.  The Thumb is about the largest expanse of really, REALLY flat land to be found in this state.  As a result, the local economies are pretty much given over to farming - sugar beets and soybeans most prominently.  The mascot for Jen's high school is the Pioneers, in honor of the local sugar factory.  So, the next time you crack open that 5-lb bag of Pioneer sugar, you can think of us, OK?  And I can't pass by without mentioning her hometown's charming little Swinging Bridge, which is all of 2 blocks from where my dear wife grew up; just sayin'.  Over the years, our kids have had a lot of fun, uh, swinging on the Swinging Bridge (aka the Mother-In-Law bridge, for the sign over the 'townward end' urging its crossers to 'Be Good to Your Mother-In-Law'; are they talkin' to me?)

I always do as I'm told. . .

The proximate cause for our journey today is a gathering of family and friends in honor of Jen's mother's 80th birthday.  So please join me in wishing my mother-in-law a very happy and prosperous birthday.  In the mother-in-law sweepstakes, I hit it big - my MIL is one of the saintlier people I've known in my young life (she would have to be, in order to bring the likes of me into her family).  On the old theory that your mother-in-law is a glimpse into what your wife will be like in 25 years, I married even better than I knew at the time. . .

It seems that years ending in '2' are looming large in my life, these days.  Which is to say that I know lots of people celebrating 'decade' birthdays this year.  Besides my MIL, I've already told you about 1F, who recently turned 30, and 8M, who turned 10; but 5M will be turning 20 in another month, as well (and the notion that I'll have five children older than 20 just seems the least bit. . . I don't know. . .)  Several of my friends are celebrating their 60th this year (yeah, I'm one of those guys who likes to play with older kids).  I'm sure, if I think hard enough, I could come up with someone turning 40 or 50.  My birth-father turned 80 earlier this year, and if my dad were still alive, he'd be turning 90.  And later this year will be the 110th birthday of one of my grandmas (well, she died 26 years ago).

Anybody know any centenarians?