They say it's your birthday
Of all the things that are out of a person's control, being born ranks number one. But, like everything else made by humans, birthdays can be seen as a document of the past
I was born on January 20th, 1981, which is Inauguration Day, in the Azores, Portugal. My older brother wanted to name me “Jesus” but my parents opted for Eric Paul. The ultimate in biblical names idea was probably because I was meant to be a New Year’s Baby and my big brother was hearing a lot about Baby Jesus as my household was getting ready to greet me.
Social history through a birthday
These birthday facts are unique to me, but like everyone else, they can be looked at as reflections of their era. I was the second and last child in my family and growing up I knew many other families of four or less. This matches up with birthrates of the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s, which themselves are reflections of social patterns of interest and ability to raise children. The period following World War II—when both of my parents were born— saw a huge increase in birthrate and family size and that had much to do with the euphoria of war’s end and the comfortable economic climate that was ideal for childrearing.
The fact that I was overdue (and massive, close to 10 pounds!) speaks a lot to the state of reproductive medicine at the time, or at least in offshore locations like the Azores. If I was born stateside maybe I could’ve been the first American kid of the 1980s!
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