It will be the fifteenth anniversary of my 55th birthday tomorrow, May 5, Cinco de Mayo.

I always went to a Mex restaurant on my birthday. California had plenty to choose from but after a few delightful test runs my ex and I usually went to a place named Lechuga's. The cuisine was excellent and they had a giant buffet table, lots of TVs and good Margaritas.

One time my birthday fell on Kentucky Derby Day and I had given a bookie twenty US as a bet on the nose of a horse named Seattle Slew. The pony won and I cleaned up.



It was the only time I ever picked a Derby winner.

Lechuga's owner knew us and he found out that my birthday was on Cinco de Mayo. From then on my dinner was free. That isn't why we kept returning. We loved the food and the Margies.

Tomorrow I am going to our fine Mex place here in Tiffin named X-Caret. The name is based on a little town in Quintana Roo, the state in Mexico where Cancun is located.

This restaurant is really incredibly good, considering it is located in the remote provinces of Ohio. How that happened I do not know, but it is one of the few reasons the owners of the Tiffin Mall have not locked the mall's doors. There are the Mex place, Radio Shack, a small Penney's, a dollar store and a pizza joint remaining in a giant structure that at one time hosted about 45 businesses.

On Thursday nights they offer two-dollar Margaritas, blended or 'las rocas.' That means 'on the rocks.'

I have invited some folks to join me but if the pattern holds, I will dine alone, like last year and the year before that. This does not bother me, except for the fact that this year's birthday is a round number and special, I suppose.

Birthdays are odd occasions. In earlier years they were celebrated with glee. Now I rue them. But the alternative is not so tasty.

I will probably have carne asada, beans, rice and some guacamole on pico de gallo, a cerveza with a slice of lime, and maybe, just maybe, a Margarita las rocas.



Memories will return of those huge vats of Mex food at Lechuga's, and the horse running away from the pack.

The Slew was one of the best race horses ever run. And I won some birthday money on his beautiful nose.

I will never forget it.