Leap Day birthdays
BY DAILY RECORD STAFF
The Daily Record staff interviewed a few
leap day babies...
Look who's 10!
By ANDREA PASCOE
Tammy Brown is a
spunky redhead who's only 10, though she holds a steady job, has
two young daughters in school and is a grandmother.
Brown is a Leap Day baby.
Born Feb. 29, 1964, Brown's birthday is unique by most
standards. Growing up in Thorp, Brown said she simply got used
to having her birthday
every four years.
"It made me learn fractions early in life," she said
laughing. "It taught me how to do calculations."
Brown said she never really missed having a birthday every year
because when she was young she could choose what day to
celebrate her
birth and often had two birthdays instead of one. She said her
parents liked to commemorate her birthday on Feb. 28 and always
made her feel
special about not having a day to call her own.
"I was teased in school," Brown recalled. "'You
don't have a birthday' or 'I'm older than you'" is how some
of her schoolmates taunted her. But
Brown didn't let the razzing bother her.
"I never paid much attention to it," she admitted.
With her 40th birthday rapidly approaching, Brown admits she
likes the sound of being 10 as opposed to being 40, or
"over the hill." To mark
the occasion, Brown and her daughter Brandy Oldring are taking
the Spirit of Washington dinner train and staying overnight at
the Hilton in
Renton - a trip she won through a raffle.
Brown works as a hairdresser at Modern Images based in Briarwood
Commons on Mountain View Avenue. When not working with seniors -
something she truly enjoys - Brown can be found with her
daughters, Stevie Rae and Christina or granddaughter, Kyah,
"the smartest 2-year-old
on the planet."
But this birthday - technically only her 10th - will highlight
her special day by marking the passage of time and by spending
time with her
oldest daughter.
Look who's 12!
By DAVID DICK
Most of the students at Morgan Middle School have celebrated
more birthdays than custodian Forrest Cross. That is because
Cross was
born on Feb. 29, 1956, a Leap Day.
"There was another kid born on that day and the nurse that
was holding was also a leap baby," Cross said from his
basement office at the
middle school.
"It's just something unique," Cross said. "It is
nice being unique in this day and age."
Most days Cross can be found from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in his
office just off the boiler room at the school. The office is
filled with parts
catalogs, spare light bulbs, broken pencil sharpeners and
various other tools needed by a Mr. Fix It.
"I've been working for the district for the past 20
years," Cross said over the mechanical wirrrs coming from
the bowels of the 75-year-old
school. Cross has spent his 12 Leap Day birthdays here in the
Kittitas Valley.
"I like it here," said Cross. "There are the
mountains, streams and not a lot of people."
For the other three years of the calendar, Cross celebrates his
birthday the 28th of February.
"I get a calls from people I haven't heard from for four
years," Cross said. "They remember it's a leap year
and remember me. Everyone
remembers it for you."
When not working as the custodian and general handyman at Morgan
Middle School, Cross volunteers as the area coordinator for the
Seventh Day Aventist's Pathfinders program.
"It's a lot like Scouts, only co-ed," cross said.
As area coordinator, Cross supervise 11 youth groups from Cle
Elum to the Tri-Cities.
As for Sunday, Cross' wife will probably stick with tradition
and put 12 candles on the 48-year-old's birthday cake.
Look who's 14!
By MIKE JOHNSTON
George Anderson said he is looking forward to waking up on a
real birthday on Sunday, something he has only experienced 14
times,
although he's been around 56 years.
Anderson was born Feb. 29 and that day only shows up on the
calendar every four years. But Anderson doesn't want people to
think
he's deprived of birthdays.
"I just have my birthday on Feb. 28, that's all; I still
have a birthday," he said.
He and his wife, Kathryn, purchased 80 acres 12 miles northwest
of Ellensburg off U.S. Highway 97 in 1980 and visited their
property
whenever they could.
But soon they wanted to leave the Puget Sound area.
"I drove truck in the Seattle area and traffic was becoming
a nightmare every day," he said. "We really wanted to
get out that area."
They moved from their home in Kent to the Kittitas Valley in
1990.
He drove truck for a while with a local firm but later quit to
raise paint horses full time at the couple's Diamond G&K
Farms. They also
raise goats and cattle. His truck driving is usually confined to
hauling hay for his horses. Kathryn works in the Kittitas County
Fair office.
"I have some great, short birthdays when it's not a leap
year," he said with a laugh. "It's from a minute
before midnight on Feb. 28 to
a minute after midnight."
He said he puts his birthday down as Feb. 29 on documents,
although some don't consider it a legal birth date. Anderson
said he
doesn't remember outstanding experiences on his birthday in a
leap year because they only happen every four years.
But Sunday is looking like a memorable one for him. The couple
expects four of their five children and their families to visit.
Look who's 3!
By PAT MUIR
Soon-to-be-12-year-old Samantha Traicoff doesn't mind that her
birthday only comes around every four years; to her, being born
on Leap Day is just something that makes her unique.
"I like it," Samantha said. "Hardly anyone else
has it."
Besides, on non-leap years she gets two birthdays: Feb. 28 with
her mother, Kimberly Romig, in the Upper County and March 1
with her father, Lance Traicoff, in Bellevue. When it is a leap
year, she essentially gets a three-day birthday, said her
father, with
whom she lives for most of the year.
"We do like a bigger, party-type thing and have more family
time," Samantha said.
Her friends at McKnight Middle School, where she is a
sixth-grader, sometimes give her a hard time for being a Leap
Day kid,
but it's all in good fun, she said.
"They make fun of me," Samantha said. "They go,
'Hey, ha-ha, you're only 3.'"
That goes both ways, though, she said. It's fun to confuse
people sometimes by saying her third birthday is coming up,
Samantha said. "I 'get' people a lot," she said.
Basically, though, Samantha isn't much different from other kids
her age, she said. Her favorite subject in school is social
studies,
and she wants to be a teacher or a dolphin trainer when she
grows up.
An avid reader, Samantha likes mystery and horror books best,
and when she's not burying her nose in a book she enjoys riding
horses. |
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