Just you wait 30 years. Last year will have been a lot easier than this year, and God knows what’s going to go wrong next year!

With two young men, Ken and Tim, at age 20 I backpacked into the lovely Enchanted Valley in Olympic National Park. With a hanging glacier at the end, the valley has high cliff sides with waterfalls cascading to the valley floor. There's also a beautiful, A-frame chalet built in the 1930s (naturally, overrun with mice).

At the chalet, we met Roger Lampre' from Billings, Montana. With his string of pack-horses, Roger had a contract to haul in wood and supplies to rebuild bridges in Olympic National Park that summer. I needed to return to work the next evening. It was 14 miles to the trail head.

As Roger got drunk on whiskey, I started talking him into taking us out the next day. At first he agreed to take just me. I said no. Then he agreed to take me and the guy's packs. I said no.

Before passing out, Roger slurred, "If you can round up the horses in the morning, I'll take all three of you and your packs."

The next morning was my 21st birthday. With a flourish, Ken presented me with an egg-sized, quartz crystal that had formed on the cliffs above, and tumbled down to the river. Ken found it in the river. I was thrilled. That crystal now sits on my kitchen windowsill.

None of us had experience with horses. The next morning, the horses had wandered far up the valley. "Here Horsie!" didn't work. Eventually we got behind the horses. Waving our arms and yelling, we ineptly herded the horses toward the chalet. By then, Roger was awake and roaring with laughter at our antics.

Roger had the only saddle. We rode on horse blankets with no stirrups, with legs dangling down. My horse was named "Nubbin." Roger told me how Nubbin once fell off a cliff beside the trail. A confidence-builder.

Riding out of that beautiful valley was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER. I felt rapturous the whole way. After 14 miles on a horse with no saddle, there was "nubbin" left of my behind when we go to the trail head.

My legs collapsed when I slid off the horse. The guys made me a nest of sleeping bags in the back of the truck. I never made it to work on my 21st birthday.

I can’t be specific. All I know is that I was put in charge of the bar whilst drunk. I remember little before that. After that, it remains a complete mystery to this day, although there is a vague memory of lying down in the rain on a main road, in my natty three piece suit, demanding to be left alone so I could go to sleep. What I do know is that the party was on a Sat evening/night/Sun morning, and I was physically unable to go to work until Thursday. And that was a close run thing. It was my 22nd. For some reason, I cannot abide even the merest whiff of cognac ever since.

I don't recall any on my BD. I try to act my age that day. Any other day is fair game but not on BD.

You don't look 52 first of all. My dumb one was this year made my own cake with my 4yr olds help.

Worst I ever did was get black out drunk and puke on a good friend's couch.

I snuck out with my son's friends & they lit me up. Naughty momma?

I don't remember!

Read that again..

This may be way off, but when I wished I could get bit so I could become a vampire when I turned 30.

Happy Birthday!! ???

My 22nd birthday I blacked out, and woke up on a flight heading to Phoenix Arizona. Still trying to figure out how I did that

I'm tearing up just thinking about the wasabi-snorting scene in Jackass!!!

I drank a fifth of Bacardi 50-50 and was sick for a week.
I went on patrol in Saudi Arabia for my 30th birthday.

30th birthday. Got arrested for drunk and disorderly. There was an accident in my neighborhood and I was out there being the fool. Don't ever say to a cop,"you can't arrest me".

I spent two consecutive birthdays with a girl who ended up breaking my heart. The first wasn't so bad because I got to see my favorite band live in Dallas, AC/DC!!! But by the second year I had fallen for her and learned she was seeing someone else.

Not my own birthday, but a friend and I took a late night swim in our boxers (not literally boxers). That was in late January in Pennsylvania.