Will you still need me, will you still feed me...

(If you don't get the reference, click here)

My mother's birthday is on Monday. It is not, in fact, the birthday of Beatles' fame, but the one after it, the one about which the Social Security Administration makes a point (at least now, in its agonal moments. When I'm 64, it's entirely possible no one will care). I think this entitles her to the proverbial Big Deal being made out of it. But being my mother, like everyone else in this family, she tends not to think birthdays are all that exciting, even the landmark ones. So she's sort of lukewarm on the idea of the Big Deal.

I asked her if going out to dinner on your 65th was analogous to your 21st. You know, how they make a production about carding you and bringing you your drink? I asked if they'd make a similar fanfare out of carding her for her senior discount. Although, apparently, you have to be, like, 40 to get those these days at some places.

Which, is interesting, because "old" these days is clearly the new young. As the "War Babies" and the Baby Boomers pass out of middle age, they've refused to do so with any hint of the complacency of the generations before them, many of whom took their forced retirement and bought a polyester pantsuit and called it a day, even though they weren't necessarily ready for the twenty or thirty years of puttering that awaited them. Yes, that's a gross overgeneralization, but in some ways it also isn't too far off. They left vocations they loved and which fulfilled them and many took on roles of passivity and dependence because of faltering health (which we now can more effectively treat), limited incomes (which usually resulted from reaching retirement age, not necessarily a desire to retire), or because that's "what was done." Face it, not twenty years ago, when I was a kid, old people were a lot older. Now, a lot more of them are independent, world travellers, taking up new hobbies and learning new skills, staying on top of current events, and generally doing what they want to do...and well they should. As I'm heard to say probably much too often, just because someone else - even society at large - tells you that you're something, doesn't make it so.

The other issue, though, that arises with the advent of my mother's birthday is the curious need I feel to get her something. She, of course, is no help with this. And I don't feel like I have enough time to actually make her anything, which would be the most appropriate thing, especially not if I intend to hide it from her until Monday, because I live with her again. I did make her these for Mother's Day, which isn't usually a gifting holiday in our house.

If I'd planned better, I could've made them a birthday gift. Or given her one for Mother's Day, the second on Monday. Ah, well.

In case you're curious, they're slippers. More or less the Sweet Mary Jane pattern (link here) with a couple of extra rows of single crochet worked around the top. It's a nice pattern, actually; worked toe up with a kitchenered heel, but a simple knit that goes fast, very appropriate for the intermediate or advanced beginner knitter who has a handle on basic crochet (all you need is sc), and a good intro to toe up without having to turn the heel. The yarn is a second from when Dream in Color, for whom I used to work, was trying to find its 200 series blue. I like this one, frankly, and there was another one with a little bit of red that I really liked as well. Alas, they both lost. The other one became a Christmas gift for the mailman...