It’s Not Everyday a Blogger Turns 108
Friday, 12 October 2007
[EDITORIAL NOTE: The Where Elders Blog section just keeps growing with new photos every day. The more there are, the more interesting for all of us. Have you sent yours?]
Olive Riley is the oldest blogger around. Some quibble that she isn’t really a blogger because her friend, Mike Rubbo, transcribes and posts their conversations at Life of Riley, and she doesn’t generally surf the web without his help.
To that I say, rubbish. Disabled people use all kinds of devices to help them on the internet, so why not elders who need it? Olive’s device just happens to be human. And besides, it’s a great help to me for this week's project.
For the past three years, in August, we have held a Blogosphere Birthday Bash for Millie Garfield of My Mom’s Blog. It started in 2005, when she celebrated one of those big, round, even birthdays – the big eight-oh – and has continued each year since.
To do that, sometimes enlisting the help of other bloggers, I’ve emailed everyone I could think of who would want to create a birthday post for Millie, gave them the date and then we emailed again to remind everyone a day or two before the big day. All this emailing was done (rather than posting a public announcement) so it would be a surprise for Millie. This time, it can be a surprise for Olive without all that emailing.
Olive’s 108th birthday is coming up on 20 October. Imagine! Telephones weren’t even common when Olive was a kid and now she has a blog.
So, taking a page from the Millie birthday book, let’s give Olive a big blogosphere birthday bash from all over the world. Bloggers don’t turn 108 every day, you know. Here’s how it goes:
- Create a birthday greeting for Olive. It can be as simple as “Happy Birthday, Olive” in great big letters or as complex as you want to make it – photographs, drawings, cartoons, pictures of balloons or a cake, audio, video, whatever.
- Post it on your blog. In this case, we should do it the day before her birthday, on 19 October, because although it taxes my brain to keep it straight, Australian time is almost a day ahead of the U.S. and Europe time, and Mike tells me they will be getting together on the 20th for a celebration. Olive will be able to see the posts then or the next day.
- After you’ve posted the greeting, go to Olive’s blog and leave a comment on her latest post with a link to your greeting.
It’s that easy. I’ll post a reminder here on the day before the greetings are due so you won’t forget. Let’s make this the biggest elderblogger birthday bash there has ever been for one of our own.
If you would like to tell your own blog readers about this project, feel free to copy any part of this post.
[At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Nancy Leitz explains how there really is no place like home in Taking Dad Home to Pennsylvania.]
Well goodness me--she certainly deserves the birthday wishes and a global celebration. Thanks Ronni for your caring enough to organize these things.
Posted by: susan | Friday, 12 October 2007 at 03:40 AM
What a great idea! I've put a reminder on my "to do" list.
Colleen
Posted by: ces | Friday, 12 October 2007 at 04:00 AM
That's a great idea, and I'll try to remember to do it! By the way, today is my 75th birthday, and if I make it to any more of those birthdays ending in -0-, maybe somebody will do the same for me!
Posted by: Marlys Styne | Friday, 12 October 2007 at 04:20 AM
What a great idea. I'm in!
Posted by: jen | Friday, 12 October 2007 at 06:25 AM
I most assuredly want to wish Olive a Happy Birthday, but I don't have a blog. Would it spoil things if I wish her Happy Birthday on her web site on the 19th? I don't want to get ahead of the bloggers.
Posted by: Darlene | Friday, 12 October 2007 at 07:32 AM
Darlene - and others who don't keep a blog:
OF COURSE, visit Olive's blog and wish her a happy 108th. The more, the better.
Posted by: Ronni Bennett | Friday, 12 October 2007 at 07:48 AM
I had already planned to do something like this for Olive, and it is great that you are helping others to do it too!
Posted by: kenju | Friday, 12 October 2007 at 01:36 PM
Great idea, Ronni! I'll do it. She deserves Special Birthday.
Best wishes!
Posted by: krystyna | Friday, 12 October 2007 at 03:30 PM
Leave it to you Ronni to come up with a great idea in honor of Olive's birthday!
I can say from personal experience that the birthday celebrations I have had through the blogosphere have been the greatest parties I have ever had!
I've marked my calender!
Posted by: mildred garfield | Friday, 12 October 2007 at 03:42 PM
I'd be delighted! I LOVE telling people Happy Birthday when it's their birthday!! Thanks for the initiative, Ronni!
Posted by: Nikki | Saturday, 13 October 2007 at 12:07 AM
Hi Ronni. That's a great idea, encouraging elderbloggers to send emails to Olive. I look forward to reading them to her.
I've just written a story about Olive as the Cinderella of the blogosphere. The South Korean citizen reporters' journal OhmyNewsInternational in Seoul has posted it.
Posted by: Eric Shackle | Saturday, 13 October 2007 at 03:17 AM
What a brilliant idea!!! I'm in!
Posted by: Lyn F. | Saturday, 13 October 2007 at 07:05 PM
Me too.
That is really brilliant.
Posted by: Chris | Sunday, 14 October 2007 at 05:39 AM
Sorry for multiple posts! Please delete all but last, which has correct blog address.
Posted by: Christine McKenna | Sunday, 14 October 2007 at 04:52 PM
Happy Birthday Olive from Prince Edward Island .
I got your name from a newsletter I get called donspatch.
Enjoy your special day.
Sue
Posted by: Sue Hanlon | Monday, 15 October 2007 at 05:03 AM
I've just posted at my French blog, http://vieuxcestmieux.com, so that my readers will have time to go to Olive's and wish her a happy birthday. It's a grand idea, Ronni.
Posted by: Claude | Thursday, 18 October 2007 at 05:52 AM