My brother loved to play jokes on David and Tommy. You never knew what Uncle Bob was going to do. On Tommy’s 4th birthday, my brother, sister-in-law, and niece were here with my family and Tom’s grandmother to celebrate his birthday. I had gotten a specially decorated cake with a train on it like he wanted and it was hidden. We had dinner first. Once dinner was over, Tommy was getting very excited about his cake and presents. My brother grabbed a left over dinner roll, asked me for a candle, and lit it. He told everyone to gather around and sing “Happy Birthday” to Tommy. Of course Tom was expecting the cake to come out and the “Birthday Roll” came out with the singing and celebration. You can see Tommy’s reaction in the picture. The “birthday roll” picture has been famous in our family since 1977. I saw a picture of Tom posted yesterday that shows his precious smile when he saw the real cake he had been waiting for!! My family can have a cruel humor sometime. So did Tommy and his brother!!!!
Tom’s mother
The picture I remember most. He brought so much joy to my childhood. Memories that will live with me always.
I’m so glad you all have photos of this memory! These photos are priceless. He’s so adorable in both of the photos. His smile sure came back when he got that train cake!
Does anyone know what he had on his right index finger? It looked like a large ring, but I wish I could see it better. We posted these photos in the photo gallery too, and they should be larger there.
I never heard his “birthday roll” story before this past week. Tommy was a funny prankster too, so he must have enjoyed keeping with family pranking tradition. 🙂
It’s a funny coincidence you have a family cake story because when Tommy was a teenager, our friends used to have a “cake party” for no particular reason, in which we’d bake a cake together, then have fun while waiting for the cake, then we’d all eat the cake and continue the fun. Our friend Jeff emailed me the other day to share a memory of us singing about it. Now I forgot the exact lines, but it was something like “Tommy’s great! Bake us the chocolate cake!”
The love of that train cake must have stayed with him forever. 🙂