Celebration Mix-up

I was born on July 22, 1957 to Jack H. and Marilyn Narita Gross in a small hospital in Akron, Ohio. There is still a lot of mystery enshrouding that day; such as, who the doctors and nurses were that helped delivery me and was it raining or sunny? Was it exceptionally warm or was it unseasonably cool –no one knows for sure. Certainly you would think that someone would remember that on July 22, Jimmy Gross was born into the world. As the years went by we forgot what day it actually was but that’s all right because the important fact was that –I was born! Living in the good old U.S.A. I guess it may have been because of vacations and summer schools that the day was lost to obscurity, but, like I said, it doesn’t matter much. The important thing is that I’m here living among you. What tickles me (and it really isn’t all that funny) is that my brothers and sisters still argue amongst themselves about the actual day. And while they have been fighting, everyone else just celebrates it any old way they choose. It has gotten so bad that some folks don’t even allow my name to be spoken. It’s like they think that I don’t hear their silly little reasons of not offending certain folks –what am I? Chopped liver? Wasn’t it my birth that they were celebrating in the first place? Yeah, I’ve been kind of pushed to the side on this one, as a matter of fact, I’ve been down-right pushed OUT in some circles. Whether it’s through embarrassment, greed, drunkenness or just plain hatred (not everyone likes me) my birthday just isn’t what it used to be. But please, don’t think that I’m sitting in the corner somewhere brooding over this. I’m not. Do you know what bothers me though? It’s the folks that are determined to celebrate my birthday just one time a year and for the rest of the year they live like I don’t even exist. No calls, no letters, no visits, no acknowledgement that I even exist! They say they give gifts to one another for my sake but they can’t even be kind towards one another. Thanks but no thanks! Really, it’s fine that people want to celebrate my birthday and it’s fine that not everybody celebrates it the same, but for goodness sake don’t live your lives as though I’m not living here with you! That’s just plain rude.
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