Happy Birthday to David Baird Shaw, a good and talented man! My husband and I brought David home from the hospital to 333 South Ninth Street in Griffin Georgia on Mother's Day in 1958. David's may 9th birthday falls on Wednesday before Mother's Day this year 2012! (The picture to the left is David happily holding his day old grandson, Alexander James Rogers. Alex was born April 6, 2010.)
David was born on a Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. the seventh child and the of a Methodist Pastor and his wife. This was at a time when pastors salaries were low even though ordination required 3 years of Post Graduate Seminary education.
David was welcomed as enthusiastically as if he was an only child. We brought him home from the hospital on Mother's Day over 50 years ago and I am still proud to be his mother.
David was a bright and happy boy who took seriously the fact that in the Bible "seven" is the number of perfection as well as completion.As a boy, David preferred peanut butter sandwiches to vegetables and tried to live on them. This fact caused his Daddy to consult with a doctor friend. The doctor said he had heard of children who tried to survive on worse and David would grow out of it.
So he continued to push his veggies around on his plate and drop as many as possible on the floor thinking his mother would not notice.
His sisters like to tease him at all family gatherings to this day that David never made his own peanut butter sandwich. They report he enlisted one or another of his indulgent siblings to do it for him. Even my granddaughter Lyn tells me she was enlisted to made him sandwiches. As Carol said, "He was just so cute."So David never needed "self esteem" lessons nor "diversity" training. He played the guitar and drum in the RSV (Revised Standard Version) Youth Group at church, so he was popular with his classmates and especially the girls as a teenager.
David is now a hard working business man and and lay leader in his church. 
and Grandfather to almost two year old Alex.
5 comments:
What a beautiful tribute to a great guy. I send my greetings and well wishes (although late!!!) to David.
I loved reading what you wrote about David. Writing something like this makes you realize how inadequate words are to really convey meaning, doesn't it? A person can't really be captured in words at all, but you made a really good stab at it. Happy B'day, David!!!
Great post about a great man! HBTY, David.
BTW, I made quite a few peanut butter sandwiches for him, myself.
Mother, this post brought tears to my eyes. David was just so very cute - and we all adored him! But he did turn out to be such a wonderful man, in spite of being pampered by all his older sisters. Love you both, Mother and David! Debi
You know David WAS such a cute little boy. However, he is still cute as an adult. Best of all, he's such a good, good person. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVID!
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