Birthdays are great occasions for all to remember and enjoy. This year, my neighbor turned 95 years old! This is such a momentous occasion, her daughter decided to throw her a big birthday bash. I volunteered my services to shoot the whole event. It was a great party, so many friends and family members stopped by to wish her a Happy 95th Birthday.

I took so many photos and instead of just printing the photos, as my gift, I created a personalized Birthday Photo Book complete with text, clip art and photos. The next evening when I presented the book to her, she was ecstatic! The reaction on her face was amazing as I watched her thumb through each page. She was so thankful for the photo book immortalizing the event. The reaction was way better than I had ever expected. The photo book made such a great and personal gift, I now know what to get those people that are so hard to shop for!

Create a Photo Book

Back in 1974, there was an add in the New York Times for an African Grey parrot, and a couple in New Jersey were selling him because they said he was vicious from being wild-caught. I knew I could tame him if I spent enough time with him. It took over two years to get him to trust human beings, and since then he has become one of the friendliest birds that his vets at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary Hospital have ever seen. When I take him in there, all the students come in to see him because of his reputation. People are amazed that he is still alive. When we went to Reptile Land, I called up the owner and told him we were doing a kids book project called My Older Brother has Feathers with my son and Kasuku. The owner, Clyde Peeling, asked me, “That’s not he same bird you had here in the 70s?” He said, “Does he still curse when you say Nixon?” and I said, “No, but he does when you say Bush.” He laughed and said come on out to the park. And when I was at Gordon Park’s funeral, Kurt Vonnegut was sitting behind me, and I told him I had just come across a really beautiful photograph of him and Kasuku. Kurt said, “He’s not sill alive is he?” I said, “Not only is he alive, but he’ll be sitting on your headstone some day laughing.”

Over the years so many people have fallen in love with Kasuku and can’t believe he’s still alive and cursing out different people as the years go on, from Nixon to the Ayatollah, to Saddam, to Bush, to Palin.
When I was talking to my ex-assistant J. Stephen Hall, who worked for me the first weekend of the Statue of Liberty project in 1982 during his first year with me, and then came back for the last six months of the Statue of Liberty project, Stephen said he wanted to come visit with his wife sometime in May. I said, “Why not come May 9th for Kasuku’s birthday? He’s turning 37 this year.” Stephen thought that would be great, and he said he would love to be there for Kasuku’s birthday. I invited all the ex-assistants, Janice, Laura Mueller, Lara, Brad, and others, and also Kasuku’s vets. Unfortunately, Stephen had a knee operation the week before and couldn’t make it. I asked him, “Why don’t you just lie in the back of the car and let your wife drive?” He laughed and, in good humor, said, “My wife doesn’t have a license, and if she did no one would be safe on the road.”

My ex-assistant Lara wanted to fly up from Raleigh, NC – she worked with me back in 1980 when Dith Pran was my assistant – but she broke her shoulder and couldn’t fly here in that condition. Janice, Brad, and my accountant, who has been with me for 40 years, all wanted to make it, but it turns out May 9 was not only Kasuku’s birthday, it was also Mother’s Day! So most of those I invited spent the day with their mothers.
Laura Mueller, who is also an ex-assistant who lives in Charlotte, NC, flew up. She and her kids are in love with Kasuku. Laura almost didn’t come, and when she told her kids, they said, “What are you going to do if you don’t see Kasuku?” Happily she made it, and got to see her old buddy.

And, a surprise to us, the New Castle County Sheriff, Mike Walsh, and his wife Norma showed up. Mike had been to many of my lectures and shows, but never to my home and didn’t know about Kasuku. When I sent them the invitation, they didn’t know what it was about, and wanted to come see. They walked up the sidewalk to the front door, and right next to the door there was a birdcage with two toy parrots in it. They thought this was the reason for the party, and had no clue what to expect. Though planning to be here for five or ten minutes, after meeting Kasuku and seeing the cake, they stayed for over four hours.

We made a special cake for Kasuku that was chocolate and the icing had a spread with sixteen photographs of Kasuku on it. We sang Happy Birthday to Kasuku who was excited about all the attention, and he had the honor of tasting the cake first. He thoroughly enjoyed the icing, which got all over his beak, and we only put an end to his fun when he made a move to climb up on the cake. Then we cut the cake and had some for ourselves.

The next morning before I drove Laura to the airport, she gave kisses to Kasuku and sadly said her goodbyes to him, who all my assistants have fallen in love with over the years.