Erin's birthday - for a fic

[aura218.livejournal.com]

A question for the group: Do we know when Erin's birthday is? Any speculation would be appreciated. I'm guessing summer of 1950.

Peg was "8 months pregnant" in the May before BJ was drafted -- he says this in the ep about their anniversary.

If you divide the series into quarters, and the war into corresponding quarters (remember algebra?), then Trapper was there for June 1950 to early 51. Going by the weather in "Welcome to Korea," no earlier than March 51. BJ arrived for 51, 52, and 53. (Assuming the show starts at the begginning of the war, or nearly so.) The war ended in July of 53.

So Peg was pregnant from 49-50, when BJ was drafted, then he did six months of training, and that puts him in Korea in the beginning of 51. (So BJ was in training for like, 2/3 of the time Trapper was at the 4077th. That's a little funny to think about, like BJ was waiting in the wings for all of S2.)

Did we ever hear BJ give a more specific day or month than what I'm proposing here?

Obv, I need this for a fic.

Thanks, Group.

Comments

[mashfanficchick.livejournal.com]

We don't know Erin's birthday is, but we do have an approximation: in GFA, BJ was trying to get home in time for Erin's second birthday. This was after the Memorial Day* trip to the beach (the one that ended with the bus trip), and before the armistice was signed on July 27th. So there's really only a two month window there to start with. And it couldn't have been too close to Memorial Day (because Hawkeye was already in the hospital, and I think had been there for a while, when BJ came to fail to say goodbye, when he thought he was going home), nor could it have been too close to the end of the war (because Hawkeye was out of the hospital before the end of the war, I think by a bit, and again, BJ came to fail to say goodbye to him when he was inside). So, her birthday HAS to be in June or July, and is PROBABLY somewhere between mid-June and mid-July.

And when I get home, I shall rewatch GFA and see if I can pull anything more concrete out of it. Because, really, I have no actual life. :-)

*Note: Memorial Day was Saturday, May 30th in 1953; it wasn't until 1971 that it was moved to always being on a Monday.

[qzee.livejournal.com]

there is an episode where they celebrate Erin's birthday, co-opting a Korean orphan to take the place of Erin and blow out the candle for the cake. Do we know the date or approximate time for that episode? Or even what episode that was, because I so fail at recalling the name of the episode.

[timberwolf63.livejournal.com]

I'm late to help, LJ has not been loading on my home computer so I only have access at work. But I do have some info. Everything mashfanficchick says is true, except for one thing. The trip to the beach in GFA is July 4th. As a result, I've always assumed Erin's b-day is late July or perhaps August.

On the other hand, you can make up whatever you want! I've given Erin a b-day in winter in one fic, just because I wanted to. LOL.