Birthday Season

When the first day of July rolls around in my life, it ushers in Birthday season. It amazes me that I share this season with so many who have become friends and important people in my life. My earliest birthday season buddy is my cousin Molly.

The stork dropped me off in the middle of Brushy Hammock, an area close to Mayo, Florida, late in the afternoon of July 6th. Three days later he made it to Decatur, Georgia to drop off my "twin" Mary Elizabeth. I can only assume that the reason it took him so long to get there was due to the fact that it was war time and gasoline was being rationed. Perhaps the headwinds were not favorable. We must also remember that this was during the days before interstate highways were even imagined. Anyway, from the time that we were aware of each other, we became fast friends as well as cousins. We each lived through the days of pig tails, older brothers, growing up, college, and marrying. To this day we share a special bond.

Another sharer of my birthday season is my friend Ginger. Although her birthday doesn't come until the tenth, she did beat me into this world arriving the year before in Boyd, Florida. We met in an American Literature class at Florida State University when I changed my major from home economics to English. Our friendship has grown and survived the years of graduate school, work, husbands, children, and retirement. We have a store of memories which include long lazy days at the beach when our children were young and enough laughter and secrets to fill several books.

Another friend with whom I have contact only shared a year of my life, but she was a very important friend during that time. Not only did we share birthday season, we shared the same first name. Barbara and her husband John came down from Virginia to teach in Orange County during my first year teaching. We hit it off immediately although she was several years older and taught French. French in college had been one of my truly humbling experiences! During that year, I almost made one of the worst mistakes of my life and she kept me from doing it. Interestingly, her son was born on my birthday several years after they returned to Virginia.

Two other young men that I know share my birthday. One was one of my Academic Competition Team members who placed second at state competion, Greg. The other is a young man, Shane, who is the son on one of the kids who grew up with Rob and Kevin. Each year Shane expects cookies from me on his birthday. How could I forget since I share it with him.

I do not believe in Astrology, but I wonder if there is some relationship to the way we are related to the seasons which help to shape us. I do know that I am a summer person. I glory in the green of the trees, the laziness of the afternoon, and the richness that is July, my birthday season.