We drove to Antlers Saturday for a surprise birthday party for my brother, Robert, 80th birthday. We left early and stopped at Waffle House in Gainesville for breakfast. Interesting place run by a tight fisted owner who limited the number of jelly packages on the table and only had one waffle maker running so I had to wait for a while on the waffle. Restrooms had no towels but a stack of napkins to dry your hands.
On the way into Antlers we stopped at the cemetery to find my dad and mother's tombstone and were fortunate when Nancy spotted it. We offered a prayer for them and their descendants. We then found the Church of Christ after showing Nancy where we were living when WWII broke out.
Tommie brought Robert to a truly surprise party. He refused to get out of the car and his kids had to go out and bring him in. Had most of his family there including his daughter Elizabeth and her daughters Nicole (who reads this blog) and Bryce who is living with Robert and Tommie, granddaughter Ricci, grandson Cody with his four sons, as well as his son Bobby and his new wife, plus a number of Antlers residents. I got to visit with one of the graduates of my class of '44 who brought me up to date on who are left. Not many. Several have died in the last year.
Robert's birthday cake had 80 candles. It was a two tiered cake with candles on the top and around the lower tier, but he was able to huff and puff and blow them all out. We then had the professional photographer take a lot of family group photos. One of all the Rodenberger boys had Robert, me, my son Mark, Robert's son, Bobby, his son Cody and four of Cody's sons. Quite a good-looking crew. More photos were taken across the street at the Brantley grade school building where Robert had gone one year when we lived in Antlers in '40-'41 and where Robert's children had gone to school.
It was a great party and we drove back getting home at 8. A long but satisfying day.
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