Hi Jody ~
We’re probably darn close; I turn 60 this September 22 (Wow, saying that sure feels surreal!). My good friend Linda Catron, Class of ’66, is actually 10 days older than I am. Her mom tried to get her in our kindergarten class, but when she put down Linda’s true birthday of September 12, the FP district strictly adhered to their cut off date of the 2nd and wouldn’t let her in. My mom wasn’t exactly honest when she filled out my papers, putting me down as turning five on the 2nd. My older sister, Carol, was already teaching me to read so Mom figured why wait another year because of a few days. They must not have checked birth certificates, or at least not closely, but she planned that if caught up with she could always beg off that she must have just missed putting that other 2 in the date!
Speaking of misrepresentations . . . I just flew with some friends to a conference, for which our organization’s president had reserved all our airline tickets online. She used our newest member, Gayle’s actual church minister business card when she entered the names. We found out at SeaTac, printing the boarding passes, that’s not her real name—not even her middle name. In this day and age, we were probably lucky to only experience a wait of over an hour plus a $50 change fee. Then we got ‘the rest of the story.’ Upon moving to a new school in a small town during first grade, the teacher just asked her name on her first day, no official paperwork required. She hated her real name so made one up right on the spot and has been known as Gayle ever since. She said she’d meant to get it legally changed at one time, but it would have cost $40.
Opal
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