Sibling Day 2010 – Clarksville, MO and Warren’s 60th Surprise Birthday Party

Here we are after lunch with our cute stick figure sibling day shirts made by Susan Martin.

It’s too bad we didn’t start this blog 16 years ago when our 1st annual Sibling Day began—we decided it was 1995 when Suzanne invited us all to the St. Louis Cardinal’s baseball game. We had so much fun we declared to do something once a year, just the four of us and we haven’t missed a year since.

This year we planned to meet in Clarksville. My siblings remembered going as kids, taking a ride on the famous skylift that overlooks the Mississippi River. I have no recollection and maybe I was mad not being allowed to ride the skylift—only Sue and Warren rode it while Ruth and I stayed with our mom and dad who were afraid of heights. I didn’t get to ride the skylift this year either as it was closed for renovations.

After we picked up Warren from Palmyra (a 2 ½ hour drive from St. Louis where us sisters live) we headed to Clarksville. We all thought Clarksville was a little closer to Warren, but turns out after the detour we spent close to another 2 hours on the road. Since it was close enough to lunch and we were all starving, we ate as soon as we arrived. It worked out perfect since we didn’t want to eat late knowing we had to get Warren home for his surprise party that would entail lasagna, cake and ice cream.

I had to pretend that I needed to be home early and cut our day short. It felt like we just got to Clarksville when we had to turn around and drive back to Warren’s, but we managed to walk the downtown area visiting the local artists. There was a Native American drum painter, a creator of wood, leather turned purse and belt creations (one of which called my name), and the Windsor Chair shop made with hand tools. We saw glass, pottery and antique stores and had to check out the Cool Beans coffeehouse. Despite the short time we had fun.

The Windsor chair maker Warren lives at the end of a dirt road. When we pulled up I didn’t see any cars. I wondered whether anyone showed up for the party not imagining where his wife (Michelle) would have hid all the vehicles. We climbed out of the car and stood on the porch while Warren talked with his boys. Michelle went inside and then told Warren to come in so she could take pictures with his sisters before we left. He finally walked in and we followed, but there weren’t any people. I wondered whether I should say surprise when finally everyone crept out of the bedrooms and shouted surprise. Needless to say Warren was surprised as was I—and relieved that there were more to the party than his three sisters.

We all ate, sang Happy Birthday and had cake and ice cream. Like Suzanne’s surprise birthday party, this one we won’t forget either.


Here we are acting goofy - okay some of us anyway...
Speaking of forgetting, when we had lunch we tried to remember all the years and what we did on Sibling Day and to the best of all of our recollections, here’s what we came up with:

1) 1995 – Baseball game at the old stadium
2) 1996 – Alton, IL
3) 1997 – Camping at Black River
4) 1998 – Kirkwood, MO
5) 1999 – Pontoon boat ride on Mark Twain Lake
6) 2000 – Cahokia Mounds in IL
7) 2001 – Train ride to Springfield, MO
8) 2002 – Quincy, IL
9) 2003 – Forest Park
10) 2004 – Sedalia, MO State Fair
11) 2005 – Florissant, MO
12) 2006 – Baseball game at new stadium
13) 2007 – Hannibal, MO
14) 2008 – St. Charles, MO and Sue’s 60th Surprise Birthday
15) 2009 – Navoo, IL
16) 2010 – Clarksville, MO and Warren’s 60th Surprise Birthday