Friday the 13th and History

My History Book from 1992

Let me tell you a story. A true story at that.

Today is Friday the 13th. It is my ‘lucky’ day. I’m not entirely sure I actually believe in luck, and I’m definitely not superstitious at all, but I do have a fond affinity for Friday the 13th. It all started when I was a young girl.

I grew up in the country, the 70’s and 80’s. I spent a lot of time outside and riding my bike and climbing trees and that sort of thing. On a bright sunny Friday the 13th I was outside and found a twenty dollar bill. For a young girl, that was like a pot of gold. I was rich. I felt like a rock star and of course told everybody that Friday the 13th was my ‘lucky’ day.

Fast forward quite a few years. November 13, 1992 in Annandale, Virginia. This is pretty much the metropolitan area of Washington, D.C. I was no longer a young girl, but rather a young woman at the ripe old age of 22. I had just moved back to VA from Los Angeles, CA. I was working full time during the day for an engineering company and taking college classes at night, also full time. Yes, I was nuts. To make me even more nuts, I took a History class on Friday nights. I had to fit in classes where I could. Not only was I working full time, and taking a full college course load, I was commuting about 55 miles each way to do all this.

Okay, so I’m participating in this Friday nigh History class with the most insane boring History professor EVER. Seriously odd dude. He would fall asleep while talking. No lie. Add to that, most of the people in the class were Asian. Now, I have nothing against Asian people of course, lol … but there were some language barriers, lol. So there was the one white guy in the class that was quiet, but would smile at me, all the time. Then he started sitting by me. He wore a Navy uniform. I am embarrassed to admit I made a joke about his last name stitched on his uniform, and feeling sorry for the woman who would end up marrying him. Little did I know that woman would be ME, and that I’d double my letters for that man. I traded a maiden name of Oliver for a married name of Higginbotham.

This shy introverted sailor finally started talking to me, writing me notes in class. We made a connection by discussing the differences in colleges between VA and CA as he had been stationed in San Diego. Our first date was Friday the 13th. So I imagine when I went around telling everybody that Friday the 13th was my lucky day, I was right. Now remember, the year was 1992.

Fast forward a few months. February 13th, 1993. Now, it wasn’t a Friday, it was a Saturday. It was a day shy of Valentine’s day. It is the day we became engaged. Lucky 13. Leave it to us to do things different. Normal people get engaged on Valentine’s day, we do it in the freezing cold, by the Potomac River, in Old Town Alexandria. We were married April 9th, 1993. We are still married present day. We have four children.

Here’s an interesting twist. As it turns out, I am actually really glad we did NOT get engaged on Valentine’s day, because I gave birth to our 2nd son on Valentine’s day in 2005. Everybody was like ‘oh are you so sad that you had a baby on a romantic holiday?’ .. and I was like ‘heck no‘ .. our romance was always on the 13th anyway, lol.

So tonight is date night with hubby. Tomorrow we will celebrate our boy’s birthday. And now you know the ‘History’ of why I love the number thirteen. Some may even say it is ‘lucky’.