THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 4, 1994 TAG: 9407040025
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
The due date for her first child was July 4. Independence Day. And Geri Jean Wilson was starting to sweat.
You see, she was born on the Fourth of July.
And so was her mother.
And so was her grandmother.
``From the time I can remember, I was told, `You have to have your first child on July 4,' '' Wilson said. ``Can you imagine the pressure?''
One of her younger brothers drove his nine-months-pregnant wife up and down hills near their North Carolina home, trying to induce her to deliver their first baby on July 4, to keep the family string going. They burned a lot of gas but, alas, their daughter didn't come until July 9.
It wouldn't have been quite the same, anyway. Sylvia G. Schor, who turns 90 today, was the first child in her family. Leyba H. Blumenthal, who won't say how old she is, was Schor's first and only child. Wilson, 41 today, was Blumenthal's first child. She was born a month earlier than expected, as if she knew she had a family birthday obligation to meet.
Three generations. Three first children. Three women. Same birthday. And a national holiday at that. It was unusual enough that the Ripley's Believe It Or Not people snapped their picture and put it in their Atlantic City, N.J., museum in the mid-1950s.
Sure, not everyone has fireworks every year on her birthday. But it's not all a red, white and blue bash, either, sharing your special day with half your family and the entire nation.
``I was the most disappointed girl in the world,'' Schor said. ``I was disappointed that all the parades . . . and gunfire and soldiers weren't for me!''
``It's tough. My wife's complained many times that she's never had a birthday of her own,'' said Herman S. ``Bud'' Blumenthal, Leyba's husband. He could be an expert - his birthday is July 3. Talk about being overshadowed.
But he and two sons have a special and secret celebration planned at the Blumenthals' Kings Grant home for the three Fourth of July babies. Wilson flew in from her California home for it.
Wilson didn't want her doctor to tell her the sex of her unborn child four years ago after she underwent amniocentesis. She just knew it was a girl, knew that her family's legacy was hers to carry or to drop, so to speak.
As usually happens, nature intervened in its own way. First, Wilson's baby turned out to be a boy. Second, like his mom, he came into the world a month early. June 9. Just another birthday.
Which is what it's really been for mother, daughter and granddaughter all along, even if granddaughter still considers ``Yankee Doodle Dandy'' her song.
When Schor took the literacy test for her voting card in the 1920s, she came across this patriotic question: ``What does July 4 mean to you?''
She wrote, ``My birthday,'' and insisted they count it right.
They did. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by BILL KELLEY III, Staff
Geri Jean Wilson, Leyba H. Blumenthal and Sylvia G. Schor
by CNB