Not much happened in the world on January 11, 1953 other than the fact that I was born in Barberton.









 Not much happened in the world on January 11, 1953 other than the fact that I was born in Barberton. This event was really only important to me and my parents. January 11, 1953 is still remembered at the hospital as Ugly Sunday, due to my birth.


I was actually born in the Weather Seal, which is the old hospital.  You know you are a true Barbertonian if you ask someone if they were born in the “new” hospital, the one that opened in 1954, or if they were born in the old hospital, still commonly known as the Weather Seal.  The Weather Seal moved their offices into the old hospital after it was closed as a hospital. 


I have only two rules on my birthday. The first is that I will receive no bad news on my birthday. Secondly, I insist that my birthday be celebrated on my birthday. I don’t believe in celebrating a birthday when it is convenient for other people.  If my birthday is on a Tuesday then it’s celebrated on a Tuesday, not on the Saturday before.  I believe that it was Jerry Seinfeld who said, “On your first birthday and your last birthday you are surrounded by people that you probably don’t know.” 


When I was growing up in Barberton my aunts and uncles, who were mostly childless, would send me a birthday card each year and inside the card there was always a crisp new $1.00 bill.  I would rip open the envelopes to get that $1.00 bill, bypassing the card.  Mom would then pick the card up off the floor and read it to me.  To this very day it is hard for me to read and comprehend a card.  All I still want to do is open it and shake it for the $1.00 bill, which by the way never falls out anymore.  I tried the same tradition with my two kids and they just looked at me when they only got $1.00.  With inflation and all, they just weren’t that impressed.  


Birthdays and New Years Day are the only two days of the year where you kind of take stock of your life.  Where have you been?  Where are you headed?  What obstacles do you face?  To me getting older is not of much concern. The reason for that is that there is nothing I can do about it.  After all today it has now been 58 years since the original Ugly Sunday.  


Tell us about your birthday memories as a kid in Barberton. I know it’s probably not your birthday but I would love to hear about your birthday traditions. It is too late to send me a card with a dollar in it, so you can make it up to me this way.

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