My dad's birthday

Today is my dad's birthday. Ricky Boyd Melville was born May 27, 1951. While today is not yet over and I am still making memories of it, I can remember things about his birthday on some previous years. I can remember less about his birthday than I can about mine, of course.

2011. Before my 12:00 class, I downloaded "America the Beautiful," "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," and "The Star Spangled Banner" from lds.org. When I came home from classes, I was talking to my roommate Chase and I think we were looking at pictures of eight-legged creatures. I was people watching out the window and saw a barefoot guy with short shorts and a funny gait. (I can't remember if his shorts were salmon-colored or if his legs were.) Then our roommate Zach came home and we put our stuff in the car to carpool up to North Salt Lake. We had to stop at the Wilk to pick up Shannon Kelly. Zach made an illegal left turn to get out of the Wilk. As we were driving down University Parkway, there was a car in front of us with a peculiar accessory on the back--it looked like a TV screen. We wanted to figure out what it was, but the car got away from us. As we got on the freeway, Zach and Shannon talked about a time when they almost crashed getting on the freeway because of a crazy lady driver. Zach was a fairly aggressive driver and said why he wondered why some of the people were going slow. I said, "Maybe they believe in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." Zach was listening to his music on his iPod and Chase started dancing to "Viva la Vida." When Zach pulled up to my house, he was surprised to see the green Taurus in the driveway--he had ridden in that car before, but he didn't know I had switched cars. My dad wasn't too happy about turning 60. My mom made him a cake with blue frosting and red, white, and blue sprinkles. The sprinkles were for my sake, so I could eat the cake. She sent me to the store for something. I went with Allie, and we looked to see if there was such a thing as Fourth of July ice cream, since my mom said she had seen some. There wasn't. As we left the store, we saw Devan Gubler. Zach texted me to see if I wanted to play card games with him and some friends, but I declined.

2005. I remember that my dad picked me up from school and we had to stop at a gas station to buy special ice to go camping. I guess our freezer ice wasn't good enough.

2004. I'm not sure, but I think this was the night when I had a junior high choir concert. We all went to Woods Cross High's auditorium. Nicole Nutter sang a song from Annie and wore an old-fashioned hat and got on her knees to sing dramatically. After the concert, my family said that they were surprised at the quality of the concert. My dad said that when the eighth-grade boys sang, he thought it would be a long night, but then it got better. He asked about the girl with the hat.

2001. My dad wasn't happy to turn 50. We were at Shingle Mill campground in Fillmore Canyon. That day we went to my grandparents' house in Fillmore before and after church; my dad said that it was fifty years ago to the day that he first entered the doorway to the kitchen (when he was born, the kitchen door was the front door of the house). Grandpa Boyd told my dad that he remembered when he came into the world. We went back up to the canyon, and my aunt Sarena brought my dad a cake that had "Over the Hill" decorations and black frosting on the edges. My cousin Steven got some all over his face and we discovered that the black frosting was blue when it was diluted.  Then my uncle Mike invited me to go adventuring in the red Jeep with him and my cousins Krishelle and Terrill. We went up the canyon, and I think we saw a place for cattle to drink. Then we looked out over Fillmore from the canyon; Mike pointed out the Maverik station. Krishelle pointed out tiny Flowell. We went to the "M" for "Millard" on the mountain; there were tin can lanterns all over the M for them to light up. I was immature and I thought it would be funny to make some weird noises by vibrating my cheeks. It really annoyed Krishelle, who kept saying "Stop that!" Then we went to a place known colloquially in Fillmore as Pink Elephant Lane; my uncle said that my dad had once crashed there. He told some silly jokes: Why do pink elephants paint their toenails red? So they can hide in cherry trees and Why do they paint their toenails green? So they can hide in lime trees. Then we went and filled up the Jeep at the Maverik station; I was surprised my uncle was buying gas on Sunday and I was especially surprised that he was also buying drinks. A snake had hitched a ride on the Jeep and fell off at the gas station. Mike asked a girl at another pump if she wanted a snake; she saw it and was a bit grossed out. Then we went back up to the canyon and our trailer's porch light was on. It was about 10:30 and everyone was going to bed; I was sad I missed a night of campfire business.

1994. If I am not mistaken, this was the last day of my preschool. They gave us pictures of our class and pencils that had pictures of the earth. They also gave us bags of clothes. These were clothes that our parents had given to the teachers in case we ever peed our pants, but a lot of us thought they were just giving us clothes. I can't remember whether or not I recognized the clothes as my own, but I do remember that I didn't recognize the Mario underwear as my own. (In fact, I think that underwear might have originally belonged to a friend named Keith, or else he had some that was the same. Underwear has a way of changing houses among children who are scared to use strangers' bathrooms.) One boy in my class was tearing off pieces from his plastic bag and eating them, saying, "I love plastic." I thought how I liked it too, but my mom and brother had told me it wasn't good to eat. (It's possible this last part was a dream; sometimes it's hard to distinguish old memories from dreams--but I always thought it really happened.) Then I think I played with my friend David Christensen while my parents were getting ready for camping. It was an overcast day.

Happy Birthday Pops!