Birthdays were so magical when I was young. There are just so many memories to cherish: the balloons, the cakes, Uncle Tony showing up drunk and hitting on Mom.

I can still smell the whiskey that stained his breath as he scooped me up and said, “Happy Birthday, Steven! Er, Kevin. Lucas. Whatever it is.” Disheveled and unshaven, he’d spin me around, letting Dad catch him just before he sent us both crashing to the floor, then he’d reach into his pocket and pull out some gift he’d picked up from who-knows-where on his way over.

Why, I remember one time he whipped out an Aten 2-Port Video Splitter/Extender and weakly threw it to where he thought I was standing. Gosh, I must’ve been seven or eight at the time. “There you go, shorty!” he shouted merrily. “A nice whatchumah… a whozamah… a thingy for your collection.” It didn’t matter that I had no “thingy” collection. He probably had no idea it was a boosting device used to duplicate a video signal from one source to two outputs, either. Heck, I didn’t even know at the time. What kid knows anything about three cascadable levels or easily transmitting multiple, high quality VGA, SVGA, XGA, UXGA, QXGA, WUXGA and multi-sync video signals over long distances? But none of that matters to Uncle Tony. He was just happy to be in a safe warm place that wasn’t prison on my birthday, and he never missed a one.

You know, I still have that old Aten 2-Port Video Splitter/Extender in a box somewhere. I like to dig it out from time to time and think about that day. I can still hear my father commanding me to go to my room while Uncle Tony rolled around on the couch and yelled in protest. “YOU CAN’T DO THAT, HENRY! THE JUDGE SAYS YOU GOTTA LET ME SEE ‘EM ON HIS BIRTHDAY AT LEAST.” Then he’d look at my mom, now sobbing at the entrance to the kitchen. He’d wink, grab his crotch, and say, “AIN’T THAT RIGHT, GORGEOUS? HEH HEH HEH.” I don’t know what he meant, but something in his voice told me he truly cared about me. And, in the end, isn’t that what family is all about?

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