Five years ago

Another birthday passed this weekend.  I considered writing something about my experience with summer birthdays, and illustrating it with a well-remembered photo of one party.  This morning I arose early with that composition in my mind.  Wondering if I had already posted that photo on this blog, I typed "summer birthday" in the search box.  Fortunately, that search function works well.

Yes, I had posted the photo AND written a column in summer 2011.  

Unfortunately, the link to the Danvers Herald column no longer worked. Nor could I find it easily via the newspaper's online site (wickedlocal.com).   I did find my original on my own computer, dated 5/30/2011, and here it is:

Summer birthdays and a reunion

By Sandy Nichols Ward

I was born in July, an inconvenient month for celebrating a birthday with school friends. I felt a bit jealous of my friends who had birthdays during the school year. Recognition of their special days came more easily, or so it seemed to me. I don't recall whether our teachers made announcements of birthdays or whether word just spread informally among the students, but I know that I felt left out of the school-based loop for communicating about birthdays. By July there was no one around to pay attention to a birthday, except my immediate family and a few neighborhood friends. 

My mother was not in the habit of planning big parties for birthdays.  Birthdays in our family were usually simple affairs: a homemade cake, a few sensible gifts, and the singing of "Happy Birthday to You."  It was rare to invite guests. 

I can only remember one large party organized for my birthday.  My friends and I sat outside around a large table set up under the trees near the big barn.  I've found a few photos of this party; I count fourteen children around the table, including myself and my sister Jean.  The photos are not dated, but from various clues I've decided that this was probably my 7^th birthday, July 1950, the summer after first grade, or at most one year later.  Raymond Dirks is on my right, and I recognize the faces of Janet Hoberg and Gordon Lindroth.

Coincidently, I hope to see some of these SAME friends in Danvers this summer, not because anyone is organizing a birthday party, but because my classmates are all invited to the BIG FLING, the 50^th Class Reunion of the Holten High Class of 1961!  I look forward to attending this reunion, which actually falls on the weekend of my birthday, July 8-10, 2011.  At last! A school event on my birthday! 

I'll bring along the old photos of the 1950 party, hoping that others may recognize faces and have fun identifying the guests at that long-ago party.