May 29. Seems like a pretty ordinary date. Sure, occasionally it is when we celebrate Memorial Day (not a trivial matter at all, but a celebration not set in stone for a particular date). But in this last week, I realized that there have been four pretty significant May 29ths in my life. I could do all sorts of math, of course, because that’s what I do. But I won’t try to figure out any odds. Suffice it to say that I can’t think of any other date that has four memorable events.
I haven’t gone back and checked all my calendars, but here are the four days to remember so far.
May 29, 1970: My graduation from Watauga High School with the greatest group of classmates ever gathered. I already “celebrated” this in my most recent post, but here are a few photos.
Fast forward 12 years to May 29, 1982. My wedding day, which definitely changed the trajectory of my life because before the end of that decade we added three children to the family!
And then, in a strange and uncalculated turn of events, May 29, 2010 was the day we celebrated Daddy’s 85th birthday. The party was originally scheduled for December, 2019, his actual birthday month. But there was a huge snowstorm- the party was in Boone, after all!- and we had to cancel. I don’t recall if anyone even realized, before or during or after, that it was our anniversary! But it was a fun gathering of family and friends to celebrate a most wonderful life. Daddy passed away before his 88th birthday, the day after a Dixon family reunion and his final birthday cake!
And the fourth big May 29th was in 2016. I had just been laid off (because of budget cuts) from my teaching job in Stokes County and was trying to figure out my “next right thing.” May 28th was a Saturday night. Rick was working in Greensboro and nobody else was here. I was looking at school system job opportunities and found one that sounded, um, shall we say, interesting. I sent an email and attached a resume. About 9:00 AM on Sunday morning, May 29, 2016 my phone rang. It was Walt Padgett, the principal of Ocracoke School! We chatted awhile; we arranged a time for a Skype interview a few days later. By that afternoon, I had a job offer, and thus began my Ocracoke Adventure.
May 29 seems like a pretty random date out of the 365 (plus 1 sometimes) we have to choose from, but in my life it seems to be rather significant!
bethdlayton 