Happy 96th Birthday to Marvin!

Our dear, our very dear friend Marvin, is 96 years old today.
I told everyone...even putting it on my whiteboard at school. Emerson is 6 months old today. I told Marvin he was 95 1/2 years older than Emerson.
"Wow!" he said.
We had Marvin over for a birthday dinner. I tried to think of a dish I knew he really enjoyed. Quiche! Marvin always tells me how much he loves my quiche. So we had quiche, salad, wine...and of course, birthday cake!
After dinner, but before birthday cake, we played a game of cribbage. Marvin had a great hand...we had to take a photo of it.
It was better because of the card on the deck...can't remember what you call that card.
When I was deciding the menu, I asked my guy what cake he thought I should make. I, of course, had a chocolate cake as one of the choices, but my guy reminded me that chocolate was not necessarily one of Marvin's favorites. I ended up making a vanilla cake with a chocolate buttercream frosting.

Not wanting to bring in the volunteer fire department, I opted to not put 96 candles on the cake. Instead, I put 9 on one side and 6 on the other.
My guy insisted on using this contraption to light the candles...
Marvin was watching...anticipating the lung capacity needed to blow out these candles...
"Oh dear..." was what I thought he might be thinking...
Lighting the candles was not a quick process...
I think Marvin was 'making his wish'...
He was getting ready...
Marvin told us he had heard from just about everyone today. "The phone just kept ringing," he said, "from all over the country, even Boston!"

He heard from a nephew in Akron who asked him if he was still drinking scotch.
"Nope, I don't drink that anymore," Marvin told him.

I told Marvin that we weren't going to have "Two Buck Chuck" since it was his 96th birthday. Instead, we had Menege a Trois.

"I don't find anything wrong with Two Buck Chuck," Marvin told us.

After tasting the Menege a Trois, this is what Marvin said, "That's GOOD wine!!"
This led to a story about a time he and Nell were in Milwaukee. They were having dinner in a 'really nice restaurant' and the wine guy asked if they wanted some wine.

"We'll have a small bottle of burgandy," Marvin told the waiter.

"Burgandy! That's trash!" the waiter replied.

"Then give me a bottle of trash," Marvin told him.

We love to hear Marvin's stories!
This led to a lot of grape and wine talk. Marvin told us his dad had some concord grapes in his vineyard. Marv (as he often calls himself) liked to eat them.
They also had red emperor grapes - a table grape, but they had seeds.
My guy then started in on 'fortified wines' and the percentages of alcohol....
"I'm not technical," Marvin answered. "If it's red, it's red wine, and if it's white, it's white wine. If it's good, you drink it. If it's bad, you pour it out!"

The wisdom of the aged!

Marvin told us his dad also had muscat grapes. He made raisins with them, too. He also used them to make wine.

They'd smash up the grapes and put them in a barrel. When the barrel was about 2/3rds full, they'd just leave it out to sit. All the pulp would rise to the top and the wine would be on the bottom. After a while, (I think 'awhile' was like days/weeks?) they'd come check it. If it was still bubbling, you'd just leave it. There'd be flies and bugs flying all above it.

Once it stopped bubbling, you'd just skim the pulp off the top and the liquid would be crystal clear. He said they'd strain it, but it was good!
His dad called it "Dego Red."
Marvin told us that a lot of people would come by their place for a glass of wine. His dad would ask, "Marv, you want some?" He told us his dad let him have whatever he was having.
One day, his dad bottled up some of the 'Dego Red.' The bottles were all about the same size. He put corks in them and had them lined up on a shelf. There was a 2 x 4 above the shelf. One night, they heard a lot of pops. All the corks had popped out.

"It was still good!" he said.
As we were playing cribbage, Marvin was high card, which meant he got to deal first. After he dealt, he picked up his cards.
"Oh boy, what a hand!" he said.

"A good one?" I asked.

"Good for nothing!" was Marvin's answer.
Marvin said he's always liked to play 'crib'.... My guy said cribbage wasn't a high stress game.

"I don't like cards that are too serious...like bridge. I don't want anyone looking down their nose at me," Marvin said.

My guy told him how much my mom loves bridge, how she actually likes any card game. She definitely takes it serious, but she's not one to look down at anyone who doesn't play it well.
Marvin has a lot of sayings when he plays cribbage:

"I have a 15 two and the rest won't do..."
"That's a double run for 8 and the rest won't wait..."

He can count cards faster than anyone...

Somehow the conversation sequed into doctors...and Marvin was talking about when doctors used to make house calls. Ron and I both remembered house calls. I can't remember if Rema, who had come after we'd finished dinner to wish Marvin a happy birthday, recalled housecalls or not. She's a little younger...51.
Marvin remembers doctors coming in a horse and buggy... and riding on gravel streets in town. His grandfather helped Marv's parents move to Whittier with a horse and buggy.
Marvin started school in 1918 when he was 5 years old. He had to walk a mile and a half to school.

"It's hard the believe the changes in the last 100 years. 60 was an old age," Marvin told us.
My guy told us that centurians are the fastest growing age group. Rema needed a little clarification on that point. My guy explained that even though there aren't THAT many centurians, that age group is having the largest increase in numbers. Children born today are more likely to live to be 100.

Marvin's stories continued:
He started telling us about foods he wouldn't try. I'm not sure how we got onto this topic, but I was interested in Marvin's dislikes. He is so easy to please that I was curious what he wouldn't like. I knew he didn't much care for squash, although one time when I had a yellow squash casserole, he said he really liked it.

He told us he wouldn't try walrus...this was a story about being in Nome...and how they would empty the stomach of the walrus and eat it raw. Uck! He also won't try limburger cheese or anchovies. Rema said she likes anchovies. I agree with Marvin!

He told us that one time when he and Nell were in Ohio, he ended up eating a soft shelled crab. That's where you eat the whole thing... but he was surprised when he ate it. "It was good!" he said.

As far as the anchovies, he told us another story from Nome. He went to a party a dog musher was giving.
"Hey Marv, you oughta try these," the dog musher said.
Marvin answered with, "I bet that dog won't even eat that."
The musher told Marvin that the dog would eat an anchovy, so Marvin threw one down on the ground, the dog walked up, sniffed it, and walked away.

Tongue - Marvin said he wouldn't try that either. "I've seen too many cows with their tongues hanging out!"

"I don't care for heart either," he added. "I don't eat liver now and never ate any tripe."
Pig knuckles were mentioned by someone. Marvin said he wouldn't eat those either. Rema then asked about pickled pig's feet. She and my guy were talking about people eating those and how they're a delicacy in the south. (I don't agree with that!) Marvin's reply to eating pickled pig's feet, "I haven't been that hungry!"

In talking about pigs (knuckles and pig's feet), Marvin brought up neighborhoods. He said neighborhoods used to get together with their pigs and would have a bunch of chitlins. "What a world then," he said, "when neighbors stuck together, would get together..."
I think here in our little neighborhood, we still have a little bit of the past between our home and Marvin's. I know my guy and I are so blessed to have Marvin as our dear friend and neighbor, and I know Marvin feels the same way about us. We take care of each other, we watch out for each other...we love Marvin and I know he loves us too.

Happy Birthday, Marvin!