Looking for an automated way to build an array of month names, I found cal_info in the manual. I used it in the following function:
function text_date($stored_date) {
// this function makes the stored match date ('YYYY_MM') human-readable
// by exploding the string and reversing the elements (year and month)
$date_words = explode('_', $stored_date);
$date_words = array_reverse($date_words); // now the string is an array
$month = intval($date_words[0]); // first element is the month
// now we turn the number into a text month, using a cute trick:
$gregorian_info = cal_info(CAL_GREGORIAN);
$month_array = $gregorian_info['months']; // an array of months!
return $month_array[$month] . ', ' . $date_words[1];
} // end of function text_date()
