Birthday Happy Hour Photo: Fifty Years Ago This Day—April 30, 1975

I’ve had a lot of good birthdays in my life because I’ve had a lot of good people in my life.

But my favorite, I think, is pictured here: I was six, the Ross bike was brand new. I think it was a half-day at school. I rode in one thousand circles around our driveway, unaware of the Fall of Saigon, which took place the very same day—as I wish I was unaware of everything that’s going on today. My mother smoked cigarettes and sunned herself all afternoon, and my dad, it appears, came home early from work and took this picture of me.