What’s your favorite month of the year? Why?

June is my favorite month. It’s my birthday month and summer begins, which is a big deal in New England. Technically, summer starts at the end of May, with Memorial Day weekend, but kids don’t get out of school until June, so that’s when it really starts. Also, the summer solstice (the longest day) is on June 20, 21 or 22.

When we were kids, every girl knew her “birthstone.” I’m not sure how that got started, but it contributed to your feelings (good or bad) about your birth month. In my opinion, February has the coolest birthstone: amethyst. April gets diamond (which is actually a little boring). Other good ones are May (emerald), July (ruby) and September (sapphire). June was wishy washy. Sometimes it got “pearl” (lame! and not even a stone), but it often got “Alexandrite.” (I’ve also seen moonstone as the June birthstone, which is also lame. Though beautiful, moonstone is semi-precious at best.)

Nobody is really sure what an Alexandrite is, but apparently real ones are quite rare, valuable, and change colors (from pink to purplish blue). As a girl, I was given a birthstone ring with a supposedly real Alexandrite. I once wore it on a jungle gym and it got stuck on a protruding screw (oh the 70s!) and bent out of shape. (I dangled by the ring for a moment, then dropped to the ground.) A jeweler bent it back into a circle for me and I still have it. Occasionally, I wear it.

So, I love June. I just want to know if my Alexandrite is real and if not, I’d like a real one please. Mine does change colors, which is cool.