"Cookie Puss" is 71 - Carvel's Ice Cream on Tamaqua's Hometown Hill

Feb 6 - Harry is 71. He has been retired 16 years
after teaching 33.
No one remembers when he had a job. 

Cookie Puss says - Nothing says Coal Regions like
a Carvel Ice Cream Cake.

One neat thing about being senile - every birthday is the best one ever!  71 does not feel any different than 70. Lulu is big on holidays - so she makes them special. It started with an early morning wakeup and a really nice breakfast. The breakfast newspaper had a great writeup of the Seminoles riding into the Syracuse Carrier Dome and pounding Jim Boeheim's team by 18.

Lulu found a great present - a Simplisafe doorbell camera so I can answer the door from anywhere in the world on my iPhone.

Our porch and yard on the doorbell camera

Now I can be sitting on some camel in Egypt and watch some guys carry out my flat screen television - and not be able to do a darn thing. Believe it or not - I had it installed and working in a half hour.

We took our daily walk at the mall - it was sad to see Sears having a going out of business sale. But I was able to buy a pile of elastic waist shorts for $4 each. Sears has been a staple of the Everhart budget for 71 years. Times marches on.

After several calls and messages from friends - Lulu made my favorite Coal Regions Meat Pie for supper (slices of smokey link sausages) . But the grand finale was a Carvel Ice Cream Cake.

Tom Carvel was from Hartsdale NY. He started selling soft ice cream when the power failed on his ice cream delivery truck. It blossomed into a franchise well before McDonalds. At the top of the Hometown Hill in Tamaqua PA was our Carvel Ice Cream Store.

Who can forget Fudgy the Whale and Cookie Puss - ice cream cakes shaped like characters? Tom Carvel did his own commercials and before he died he sold the whole franchise for $90 million.

What a wonderful end to a beautiful day. We complain about birthdays - but they are better than the alternative. Thanks to all who wished me well - having your friendship is the best part of it all.