And where were you born?

Last year I asked all of my friends who are reachable by email where they were born. Given how mobile Americans tend to be, I was curious as to how close to their birth place my friends and relatives currently lived. I found the results quite interesting.

Easily the most exotic birth place was Corrigedor, the Philippines. I know Friend Bob L. from when we were both hanging out at the State University of New York at Oneonta – I as a student and Bob as a professor – but Bob now lives on the west coast, in Pacific Grove, California.

The other person who lives farthest from her birth place is one of my three oldest friends, whom I know from when we were going to high school together in San Antonio, Texas, where we were both born. But Sherry has lived in Paris, France for the past 25 years (for which I have never quite been able to overcome my envy).

As far as the two other “oldest friends” from high school go – one was born in Ohio, but has lived most of her adult life in San Antonio; the other was born in New Mexico, has lived for many years now in Oregon, which she loves, and keeps trying to get me to come visit her in (and when I can afford to, Martha, I will!)

I was interested to learn that one of my two English friends, John, who now lives in High Wycombe, about 30 miles northwest of London, was born in Leeds, in the north. What was most interesting was that he was born at home. And John is from my generation, not from an older generation that one might expect to be born at home...as for example my stepmother, who was not only born at home – near the small town of Troop, in East Texas – she was born in the same house her mother had been born in, and in the same bed.

The other person from my generation who was born at home was actually born in her grandmother’s home out in the countryside of North Carolina. Meaghan grew up in Greenville, NC; she and I met when we became roommates in Washington, D.C. where we’d both gone to seek adventure and fortune right out of high school. Now Meaghan lives in Connecticut...and I, of course, live in Maine.

I have two friends who were born in the Bronx. Both I know from my days at Oneonta (quite a few of my friends date from my college days). Tim has lived for many years in Florida – he hates the cold – and Bob S. moved to Seattle a few years ago, after living for many years in New Jersey.

One of the most amusing birth scenarios involved one of my sisters in-law, who grew up in Minnesota. I had assumed that that was where she was born, but no indeed, she was born in Kansas City, which is where her parents happened to be when she decided it was time to be born. I met her in Ft. Worth, whence my stepbrother Mike had whisked her, after meeting her and falling for her on a skiing trip to Colorado. A widow like myself, she still lives in Ft. Worth (she also dislikes the cold)

An example of coming full circle – which often happens to people – friend John Mark was born in Kansas City, Kansas, I met him when we were both living in Anchorage, Alaska, and now John Mark lives across the river from his birth place, in Kansas City, Missouri. He’s picked out his grave site, so I guess he’s there to stay.

For all that so many of us have gone far afield from where we first sprang up, many of us still live within spitting distance of where we were born. Friend Ernest was born in Port Jefferson, Long Island, has lived virtually his entire life in nearby Patchogue, except for two years spent in the army in Anchorage – which is where we met. Friend Janis was born in Odessa, Texas, now lives 158 miles away in Abilene, which is where we met. Friend Ruth was born in Hudson, Massachusetts, which is maybe a 40 minute drive from where she has lived for many years in Arlington (suburb of Boston). These are also, I might add, among the most stable people I know.

Basically I see that most of my friends were born in New York – people I met while going to school in upstate N.Y., or when I was living in Boston – or Texas. There are a few other midwesterners thrown in for good measure – people born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Carthage, Missouri whom I know, however, from Boston, and southern Louisiana. A couple of people born in Pittsburgh, PA, whom I also met in Boston, ditto some Connecticut natives.

Perhaps most interesting is the fact that I am easily the biggest gypsy of all the people I know. They may be living many miles from where they were born – in several cases on opposite coasts – but they generally have not lived all that many places in-between. It is because I have lived in so many different places that I have met them all! And presumably all those people are just five additional people (after me; I’m the first of the “six degrees”) from knowing one another.