M.J. Gravina/Sun Post

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER: Members of Manteca’s “Birthday Club” are closer than family, they say, after 54 years of regular get-togethers. Above, Louise Holmes, shown at right, sifts through a folder of memories with a few fellow members.

“Birthday Club” keeps friends tight after 54 years

MANTECA — Most women, if they’re lucky, have one or two really good girlfriends — the type they can spend hours talking to about nothing in particular, the ones they can always count on to answer the phone for a middle-of-the-night, post-breakup sob-fest.

But one group of Manteca women has come to know that true friendships withstand the test of time, as well. They are members of the “Birthday Club,” and they have been sharing one another’s lives for more than half a century
“Let’s put it this way — we’re closer than family,” said Lou Wilson, 75, who has been a part of the group for 40 years. “What’s said here, stays here.”

The group got its start in 1954 with a few young mothers living around North Street and Powers Avenue in Manteca. With their husbands working long hours and their young kids always underfoot, the women decided they could use a little break from the joys of motherhood.

But money was tight in those days; no one had cash to entertain. So they rounded up 12 members and decided to each host a party once a year.

So once a month, the women left the kids with their husbands and walked to another’s homes for some cake, games and modest gift giving. They called themselves the Birthday Club.

But before your head fills with images of stuffy tea parties, think again. Members giggle when they recall teetering across a room with a potato between their knees or using toilet paper to doll each other up in makeshift bridal gowns; they downright blush when remembering that night they played Pin the ‘Tail’ on the nude Burt Reynolds centerfold. (Former member Angela McParland won that one, they recall.)

The games were fun, members say, but the talking was what really changed their lives. The Birthday Club was there for each other through births and deaths, illness and alcoholism.

“We share good stuff, bad stuff, painful stuff,” said Louise Holmes, 78, a member since 1957. “It’s group therapy. It was the original group therapy when it wasn’t
available anywhere else.”

Members have come and gone throughout the years, as folks have moved and passed away — among them McParland, whose husband, a French Camp School principal, was the namesake for the Manteca school; Jeanette Janis, original co-owner of downtown’s Janis Music; and Joyce Stonehocker, an employee at Franzia Winery.
Six months ago the Birthday Club welcomed their newest and youngest member, 63-year-old Paula Coates. They continue to meet one Friday each month.