Blowing Out The Candles

Did your parents brainwash you into believing it's taboo to celebrate your birthday early?  Mine did.  I guess it's a good thing that I don't really celebrate my birthday anymore.  I mean... yes... I'll be going out to dinner tomorrow with my best friend and I'm sure I'll receive a few scattered birthday cards from family members, friends, co-workers, and students.

But I don't do the whole birthday cake and candles tradition anymore.  I prefer to keep things on the DL... which makes me think that the prophecy is true and I'm actually turning into my father.  Oh well.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.  Papa Fuji just happens to be a rock star (figuratively) and my hero.

However one thing that does separate the two of us is my obsession with collecting things.  And even though I don't actively celebrate my birthday anymore, I do enjoy adding new sports cards to my Birthday PC.

First up is my 1973 Topps rookie card of Garry Maddox...

Yup.  This card is taped, trimmed, peeled, stained, and off-centered.  But that's okay... because Garry spells his first name with two R's, was a free swinging batter, and was born on September 1st:

Next up are a pair of guys who terrorized NFL quarterbacks during their careers...

Each of these guys played in six Pro Bowls each and were three-time 1st Team All-Pro selections.  Together they had a combined total of 218.5 quarterback sacks.

My most recent purchase is a guy I knew nothing about until about a month ago.  I was listening to some soccer news when this guy's name popped up.  I recognized his name from a list of September 1st birthdays and ran over to COMC to see if he had any autographs.

They didn't have any at the time, but I was able to snag this memorabilia card for $1.50.  It's a nice place holder until I can pick up an affordable certified autograph.

Wrapping things up is a copy of National Geographic from September 1972... the month that I was born in:

I found this in a stack of magazines that a teacher had donated.  I have two other magazines in this particular PC, but I'm not 100% committed to collecting magazines from my birth month.

See ya in a couple of days.  In the meantime, I want to wish my other best friend a happy 45th birthday.

Happy Monday and sayonara!