Date Calculations/Dollanganger

This is a useful tool.

## Year

The year is given only a few times, all of them in *Petals on the Wind*.

* The book begins in November of 1960.
* Cathy turns 16 in April 1961.
* Cathy graduates from high school in January 1963.
* Cory's death was at the end of October/beginning of November 1960.
* Cathy references the year they entered the attic as 1957.

These dates are all in keeping with each other.

## Birthdays

Birthday *months* are given frequently. Birthday *dates* are given almost never.

## Events

### *Flowers in the Attic*

* Chris Sr. dies in April of 1957. At the time his death, Chris Jr. is 14, Cathy (born earilier in April) is newly 12, and Cory and Carrie are 4.
* Cathy later puts the duration of their time in the attic at 3 years, 4 months, and 16 days. If they leave the attic on November 11, 1960, this puts their entering the attic in on June 25, 1957.
	+ The twins are 4 at the time of Chris Sr.'s death in April, and 5 by the time they enter the attic, meaning their fifth birthday on May 5 takes place in Gladstone. They don't leave Gladstone until summer. and on the first night in the attic, Cathy remarks that it's summer.
* November 10 is their last day in the attic, meaning they escape on November 11, 1960.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *Petals on the Wind*, "Free, at Last!" I was fifteen. The year was 1960, and it was November.
2. ↑ *Petals on the Wind*, "Sweeter Than All the Roses" I was sixteen in April of 1961.
3. ↑ *Petals on the Wind*, "Toward the Top" In Jaunary of 1963 I graduated from high school.
4. ↑ *Petals on the Wind*, "Foxworth Hall, from the Outside" As far as the world was concerned, no male child of eight years had died in the months of October and November 1960!
5. ↑ *Petals on the Wind*, "Revelations" We have looked in all the cemeteries around here and checked their records, and not one little boy of eight years died in that last week of October, 1960.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 *Petals on the Wind*, "The Siren Call of the Mountains" The Foxworth mansion was still the same. I could have turned back the clock to 1957 and on this night taken Jory and Carrie by the hand and followed those meandering trails from the train depot.
7. ↑ *If There Be Thorns*, "Bart (Part One)" pansy seeds that were meant to honor my aunt Carrie's and uncle Cory's birthday on May fifth.
8. ↑ *Flowers in the Attic*, "Good-bye, Daddy" "Darlings, I'm going to have a baby in early May."
9. ↑ *Flowers in the Attic*, "Good-bye, Daddy" There came a sunny Tuesday in May, when Daddy was home.
10. ↑ *Flowers in the Attic*, "The Long Winter, and Spring, and Summer" My birthday came in April, and Momma didn't fail to come with presents, and the treats of ice cream and bakery cake.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 *If There Be Thorns*, "Madame M" Dad wasn't that much older than Mom, only two years and a few months. She was born in April, he was born in November.
12. ↑ *Flowers in the Attic*, "One Rainy Afternoon" In November, Chris would be seventeen.
13. ↑ *Flowers in the Attic*, "Good-bye, Daddy" He was two years and five months my senior
14. ↑ *Petals on the Wind*, "Interlude for Three" It was a cold February night when I felt my first contraction. [...] I glanced at the clock—two in the morning of St. Valentine's Day. Oh, how marvelous, my baby would be born on what would have been our sixth wedding anniversary!
15. ↑ *If There Be Thorns*, "Lessons" July. My month. "Conceived in fire, born in heat," said John Amos when I told him it would soon be my tenth birthday.
16. ↑ *If There Be Thorns*, "Sugar and Spice" "Cindy is exactly two years and two months and five days old."
17. ↑ *Petals on the Wind*, "The Siren Call of the Mountains" "But you won't be fifty-two until September."
18. ↑ *Petals on the Wind*, "Enchantress… Me?" "Twenty-four and seven months your junior,"
19. ↑ *Flowers in the Attic*, "Momma's Story" Already they'd forgotten Daddy, and he'd been killed only last April.
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 *Flowers in the Attic*, "Good-bye, Daddy" When the twins were four, and Christopher was fourteen, and I had just turned twelve, there came a very special Friday. It was Daddy's thirty-sixth birthday and we were having a surprise party for him.
21. ↑ *Petals on the Wind*, "Free, at Last!" In that one room, Doctor, we lived three years and four months and sixteen days.
22. ↑ *Flowers in the Attic*, "Good-bye, Daddy" Spring days passed on toward summer.
23. ↑ *Flowers in the Attic*, "Momma's Story" Hadn't Momma told us mountain nights, even in the summertime, were always cool? And this was summertime and it wasn't cool with the windows down.
24. ↑ *Flowers in the Attic*, "Escape" November tenth. This was to be our last day in prison.