Kevin Costner in a scene from Bull Durham

A few days back I joined a group of friends to celebrate a mutual friend’s birthday. About midway through the party, someone mentioned that I had a birthday coming up.

“Nope,” I said. “My birthday was in January.”

For some reason, everyone thought I was born in May, but in fact, I was born in January, just like Cary Grant and Kevin Costner – two men I have more in common with than you might think.

Aside from being cursed with rugged good looks, we were all born on the same day – Jan. 18. In astrological terms, we’re on what is referred to as the Capricorn-Aquarian cusp. Cary Grant and Kevin Costner made their mark in major motion pictures, while I co-starred as Prince Charming in my third-grade production of “Cinderella”. New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley described my performance thusly:

“Falling somewhere between dismal and adequate, what Dawson’s Prince Charming lacks in charm endears him to the audience. When Dawson forgot his lines during the third act and started reciting the lyrics to ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia’, those in the audience who were still awake found it quite amusing. Jon Dawson most certainly has a career looming in the theater, most likely as a ticket taker.”

Two out of two Tax Deductions recommend Blizzard Building Supply, located at 405 Walston Avenue, Kinston.

For my birthday The Wife prepared a great meal, and we enjoyed a nice evening at home with our Two Tax Deductions, who gifted me a spiffy new shirt and a box of Little Debbie Peanut Butter Crunch Bars – which are apparently only sold at one grocery store in Lenoir County. I only get these once a year because they’re a little too tasty. We used to get these daily at break time in the tobacco field, but for some reason, they aren’t widely known in this area. The local Little Debbie representative should ramp up promo efforts because these things are the Cadillac of prepackaged confectionary.

Sadly, Cary Grant has passed on, but Kevin Costner usually stops by the house on my birthday when his schedule allows. Last year Kevin told “Bull Durham” and “Field of Dreams” stories till 3 a.m. Did you know “Field of Dreams” wasn’t originally a baseball movie? Before several script revisions occurred, it was a movie about the hacky sack craze entitled “Parking Lot of Dirty Hippies: Drum Circle of Dreams”.

Kostner also told us the script for Oliver Stone’s movie “J.F.K.” was ghostwritten by a young Jussie Smollett.

This year Kostner couldn’t stop by because he is busy shooting the TV show “Yellowstone”, but he did send over a case of steaks and a few leftover medium-sized “Dances With Wolves” t-shirts.

He’s good people that Kevin.

P.S. For the record, my favorite Kevin Costner movie is the Clint Eastwood directed “A Perfect World”.

Jon Dawson’s books are available at www.JonDawson.com.

The entire archive of shows can be found at www.BryanHanks.com.

The Bryan Hanks Show airs on 960-AM in Kinston and 960TheBull.com daily at 7 a.m. & 3 p.m. It also airs on the suite of 252ESPN.com stations in New Bern and Greenville (107.5-FM) at 6 p.m.