Hi I am new to PHP functions and was wondering why this isn't working.

PHP Code:
function curdate($supdate) {
    $return_date = $supdate{0};
    $return_date = $return_date.$supdate{1};
    if($return_date == '01') {
        $return_date == 'January';
    } //etc etc
    reuturn $return_date;
} 
It's being called with
PHP Code:
$supdate = curdate($row['signed_up']); 
$row['signed_up'] Say would be equal to 032588 meaning March 25, 1988. The error is:
Code:
Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in C:\Program Files\xampp\htdocs\rpg\config.php on line 19
Line 19 = return $return_date;

Also is there a better way to dow hat I am doing?