Our Village's Elite Birthday Squad Strikes Again!

A stealth unit of a different sort.

My gosh, this year there have been a lot of 50th birthdays in our village. I only know this, because the Birthday Squad struck again. They come out at night under cover of darkness and anonymity. They are our own elite birthday unit.

You should come and move here just for the fun birthday surprises. But only the round ones!
( 30 / 40 / 50...). At first I thought that the family puts up the display. A very public one to boot. Not for the faint of heart because let's face it, when you live here any thought of dropping a few years of your ' number ' are a waste of time. When they drive past your house and spot your real ' number ', good luck explaining that away. Who on earth would believe that the elite squad made a mistake and wrote 50 instead of 40?

When you stumble across this birthday display you can take it as a signal to come and drop in for a piece of cake and a tot of Schnapps. No appointment needed and everyone is welcome. Bob and I spotted a sign like this outside a friend's house. Oh we thought, let's give this a go and visit her.

" Happy Birthday...., I love your display outside. Did your kids do this ? "

" Oh no. They came in the middle of the night and put up the dummy along with everything else. "

Upon further questioning, I discovered that one has no control over this display. Some village ladies ( gosh, there might even be a committee for it ) organize all the bits and pieces and go out on their midnight runs. Somehow I imagine them to be dressed in village fatigues and have their faces smeared with dark grease...just in case they get seen or recognized!

There are a few ways to circumvent this public birthday ' Show & tell '.

• You can go to the district office and ask them not to publish your birthday
  ( oh, did I mention that everyone's momentus birthday is published in the village news ). Begging would be more like it.
• Or you could mysteriously go away on an extended holiday covering the relevant date.
• Of course the best way is to join in and hope your dummy image is not too way out!

Biggi

This is the latest 50 year old on our street. Kind of cool display, isn't it?

Each dummy looks different. I know this sounds rather terrible, but they dress the dummy to favour you...