B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y S-C-R-A-B-B-L-E
When I first arrived at my birthday Scrabble game at the Café Del Sol, Mara was outside on the sidewalk talking on her cellphone to her boyfriend Arden.
“Say Happy Birthday to Colleen,” she said to Arden and then stuck the phone near my ear.
“If you put a G in front of your name, it would be GARDEN,” I found myself saying into the phone. Arden agreed to go by the name “Garden” just for the day, for my birthday.
“I feel so powerful!” I shouted out as I swung the café door open.
Inside, birthday gifts were spread out on the coffee table in between the Scrabble board, the dictionary, and cups of tea. They included a large heart shaped potato, a book on writing creative non-fiction, and an unsigned birthday card that I was told should continue to be passed on unsigned to the next person to have a birthday. There was a pink plastic musical candle that played “Happy Birthday.” I stuck it in my chicken salad sandwich and leaned in to listen.
“Is this how you get people to set their hair on fire?” I asked Mara.
“Blow it out,” she kept saying. I kept pretending I was trying to, complaining that it was a joke candle and wouldn’t go out.
“Blow harder,” she insisted. I was so busy feigning my efforts that I forgot to make a wish when it finally, accidentally went out.
We eventually got around to playing Scrabble, but because we got started playing counter-clockwise, we were continually confused about whose turn it was. When it wasn’t her turn, Mara, who organizes spoken word performances for Floyd Fest, made plans out-loud for the poet’s line up. She asked us questions and wrote things down in her notebook.
Kathleen had just gotten back in town and discovered that her broke-down lawnmower still wasn’t fixed and her tractor needed work. As she was lamenting about her machinery problems, I was replacing the words “lawnmower and “tractor” with “blog” in my mind and understanding exactly how she felt, having just gone through some technical difficulties of my own.
Earlier in the week when I ran into fellow blogger Doug at the Café, he told me that Virginia Living magazine had an article out about Floyd. Since I’ve lived in Floyd for the past twenty-one years there have been a number of stories written about Floyd. In every case the author has felt compelled to write about “hippies.”
“Did they use the word “hippie,” I asked Doug, hoping they had come up with an alternate more creative way to refer to Floyd’s colorful alter-natives?
“In the first sentence,” he joked. 
Doug wasn’t kidding. The magazine was on the coffee table. It was a well written and informative article, but not only did “hippies” appear in the first sentence, they were described as gorgeous and floating, which caused us to erupt in giggles when I read it out loud and to take on “gorgeous floating hippies” as the buzz phrase of the day.
At one point, everyone in the café, even those I didn’t know, turned and sang Happy Birthday to me. My friend Melody, a booking agent for the Winter Sun, and a positively gorgeous floating hippie, poked her head in from the Winter Sun Hall door and finished the song with …. And many more… For a minute I wondered if the whole performance had been staged.
May 18th, 2007 8:50 am
Happy Belated Birthday!!! I read your blog yesterday and meant to get back to wish you a happy birthday and somehow the day got away from me! Sounds like you had a very nice celebration.
May 18th, 2007 8:55 am
Yes, it was, and I didn’t even mention the sweet celebration Joe had for me in the morning, calls from my sons, and my niece’s school concert, which was wonderful. The birthday is not over yet (more celebrating tonight), sharing cake and dancing.
May 18th, 2007 8:57 am
What a neat way to spend your B-day! Hope you had a great birthday!
I like the idea of passing the unsigned card around.
(I sure thought all the clothes hippies woe wee floating and gorgeous!)
May 18th, 2007 10:07 am
Happy Birthday to a fellow Taurus. 🙂 (I had my birthday earlier this week… I knew there was something similar about the two of us!!!)
May 18th, 2007 12:47 pm
Sounds like a terrific day, a birthday even better. I hadn’t heard of Virginia Living; interesting!
May 18th, 2007 12:56 pm
I read that article too and found it disappointing. I’m surprised this stuff gets past the editors. I swear they must do all of their research via Google.
May 18th, 2007 2:40 pm
Happy Birthday! I think spending time with friends is a wonderful present.
May 18th, 2007 2:54 pm
Ah, what wonderful celebrations you had. I loved reading about it all!
May 18th, 2007 3:43 pm
What’s wrong with hippies? I want to be one when I grow up.
While in Charlottesville last weekend, I picked up a flyer for the upcoming Floydfest. You’ve got some great music headed your way in the not too distant future. Railroad Earth is a MUST SEE/HEAR if you aren’t already familiar with them. In fact, my daughter and I are mumbling about making the trip up ourselves, just for that alone if nothing else.
Happy birthday! Here’s to a year full of wishes coming true.
May 18th, 2007 4:03 pm
Nothing wrong with hippies. I’m at least half hippie myself and some of my best friends are full blooded orthodox hippies. I giggle because even when I was one growing up in the 60s in the Northeast, we didn’t call ourselves that. I guess my frustration is that after living in Floyd for 20 years and longer most of us feel more integrated than the press gives us credit for. They always go for the stero-types. Hippies and moonshine. Tis true but from my point of view they keep doing the same story over and over. Although, overall I thought this most recent article was good and very imformative about Floyd.
If you come to Floyd Fest, look for the Poetree in the Global Village and ask for me. I like dancing to Donna and the Buffalo.
May 18th, 2007 8:13 pm
Yes, I got you the first time, I promise. Was trying to be cheeky. And I love that you explained anyway because your use of the word “integrated” in this context made me snort ice cold beer all over myself.
I had also remembered the Poetree from your previous posts about it. I would most definitely try to catch you reading. Or at least dancing. 😉
May 19th, 2007 12:19 am
Happy birthday, cuz. Sounds like a great one!
May 19th, 2007 12:44 am
It sounds as if you had a good birthday, Colleen. I wish I had been there for the scrabble game!
May 19th, 2007 3:44 am
Happy Birthday Colleen Now playing scrabble thats a novel way to spend your bithday.im just going to catch up with some of your blogs ive missed.
May 21st, 2007 9:50 am
Happy Belated Birthday Colleen…you look very happy and beautiful in your birthday picture! If you think about it sometime and don’t mind would you email me your address. At Christmas I think of you when I do my cards and I would’ve loved to have sent you a birthday card. Plus I like to surprise people when they are on my mind!
May 22nd, 2007 7:47 am
Now we know where old hippies go, it must be true, it is in print! Reminds me of the Bellamy Brothers song:
He’s an old hippie
And he don’t know what to do
Should he hang on to the old
Should he grab on to the new.
He’s and old hippie
This new life is just a bust
He ain’t trying to change nobody
He’s just trying real hard to adjust.
We even celebrate your Floyd hippie lifestyle here in GA according to my post today!
May 22nd, 2007 5:24 pm
Happy belated birthday!
May 25th, 2007 8:55 am
Full blooded orthodox hippies–brilliant, Colleen.
I’m more of a half breed myself, but that goes along with my general mongrel heritage.