On this, my 28th birthday, I thought I’d take a trip down memory lane to recall some of my favorite birthdays of the past. Let me first say that I have a terrible memory, especially when it comes to recalling anecdotes of the past. A lot of stuff has just gone fuzzy. So I’ve utterly forgotten some birthdays. There’s also the fact that birthdays have just never been a big deal for me. I’ve never had huge parties. But there are some fun ones that stick in my memory and I thought I’d share.

My favorite birthday party actually didn’t happen on my birthday. It was a Halloween party that I threw to celebrate my birthday, despite the two days being nearly two months apart.

I rarely had friends over to my house when I was a kid. I think I was embarrassed because my house was always really cluttered with junk. I don’t think my parents are hoarders, and it wasn’t garbage or dirty food or anything like that around the house. We just owned stuff and that stuff tended to get piled around the living room, and there was always a lot of paperwork piled up on our dining room table. We weren’t living in filth, we were just living in stuff. Anyone who has ever been to my parents’ house when it was like that knows what I’m talking about.

Anyway, for special occasions we cleaned the living room. So it was cool to have people over. On this particular year, and I don’t remember what age I was turning, my parents agreed to throw me a Halloween party for my birthday. I had to have been at least older than 10, but maybe not yet in high school. Or maybe I was a freshman in high school. Again, I have no idea. Though it was after Beavis and Butthead Do America came out on home video, since we rented that to watch during the party. That feels really teenagery of me.

Off the top of my head, I can remember inviting Shannon David, Marc Paczkowski, I think Timm Burns, Andy Greathouse, Pat Henderson…all my pals from back then who are Facebook friends now. I don’t think I invited any girls. It wasn’t that kind of party. I’m sure there were some other guys there, but I just can’t remember them right now. My brother was probably there.

What’s so memorable about this birthday is that once my friends started showing up, we all of a sudden decided to go trick-or-treating. We were all too old to go normally, and that hadn’t been part of the birthday plan, but we went anyway. It started with just walking to my next door neighbor’s house to get some free candy. Because everybody likes candy at a party.

Then once all my friends had arrived, we decided as a group to walk my entire neighborhood for more candy! We all grabbed whatever masks my family had lying around the house, some from previous Halloweens and some from toys or whatever. I remember Shannon wearing one of those dark, faceless hoods and therefore he was unable to see anything as we walked because it was the dead of night. I don’t remember what mask I wore. So my friends and I grabbed some bags and just went strolling around the neighborhood getting candy even though we were way too old to be out. We didn’t cause any mischief, but we just had a blast shooting the breeze and getting candy. Then we all came home, ate the giant piles of candy and watched Beavis and Butthead Do America.

When I was a kid, my family and I didn’t trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. Instead, my siblings and cousins would go to our grandparents’ house, and then we’d be driven through the countryside visiting people and families our family knew. So that party was also the first time I ever just randomly went door-to-door in my own neighborhood. So basically it was just a really fun night with my friends, with a spontaneous amount of trick-or-treating.

I think the year before that Halloween party was one of the only other times I had friends over to my house for my birthday. This party was on my actual birthday, but it wasn’t a party so much as a chance to have people over and to camp outside. My parents bought me this big tent, which was basically just a big outdoor room with mosquito netting for walls. I had a few people over, I remember Marc, Eli Whitcomb, Andy, Pat, and I think my cousin Tyson. And we just hung out in the tent for most of the night. I distinctly remember us talking about girls for awhile. I also remember the feeling of walking out into the middle of the road in the middle of the night. I’d never done it before, and it felt kind of cool. Eventually we all just went inside the house and slept.

The earliest birthday I can remember was probably kindergarten. Back when you had a party and invited everybody in your class. We held the party at Burger King on Grant Avenue. I remember it because we handed out little plastic lunch boxes as treats, and each box had a little Alvin and the Chipmunks figurine inside. Mine was Theodore dressed to go swimming, with an inner tube, a snorkel and big flippers.

I don’t remember any of my birthday parties in high school.

My birthdays in college were not the epic parties I was probably supposed to have, but they were fun. Since my birthday is clearly at the start of the school year, I remember using my birthday Freshman year as an ice-breaker. I remember buying some pizzas and inviting everybody I’d met so far to just come hang out in the lounge on Brew 5. The next year I was living alone in a different dorm from most of my friends, but I again bought some pizzas and invited all my friends to make the trek out to hang in my new dorm lounge. It was a good chance for people to see each other again early Sophomore year. That party ended with a bunch of us taking the pizzas to another dorm, the one we’d been hanging out in so far that year, and I think we played either Connect Four or Jenga. I have pictures somewhere.

By Junior year I had some new friends and I tagged along with them to some house party. A lot of people might remember that I wasn’t much for parties or drinking back in college, but I went out on occasion. It was a fun but unmemorable night. Senior year I turned 21, and I was rooming in a South Campus apartment with my friend Joe Maguire. If I recall correctly, I invited my old high school friend Heather Partzych over to our apartment for a quiet night. Heather attended college at a neighboring school in Syracuse, so we got together now and again during the four years of college. People might also remember that I don’t drink alcohol. I had my first drink on my 21st birthday with Heather and Joe at our apartment, just some coconut flavored rum that Joe had on hand. They made me a mixed drink. I didn’t like it but drank it for their benefit. I don’t remember what else we did that night. Hopefully something fun. Though definitely a low key celebration.

And I think those are the only birthdays I can remember…

Still, memory lane is a fun place to visit.