Leap-year
babies, today's your day
News Journal Staff Report
February 29, 2004
MANSFIELD -- It is
nearly impossible for one small part of the local population to act its age.
Joyce Webb turns 14 today, but she has been retired for a
few years now after working at Kroger. The Mansfield
resident
now spends her time traveling with her husband, Bernie. The
couple has four children -- Tina, Keesha,
Sean and Mike -- and
eight grandchildren.
Brent Haag of Mansfield loves telling people he is 4
years old today, even though he got a driver's license this year.
Webb and Haag are two of the relatively rare few who were
born Feb. 29 during a leap year. Thus, they have to
wait
four years at a time to celebrate their births on the right date.
This year, they get to do just that.
"Every time the 29th rolls around, it is special for
me in that it is the actual day of my birth," Webb said. "And
this
year, it hits on a Sunday, which is the actual day of the week that
(I was) born."
Being a "leap year baby" is no small thing to
them. The Honor Society of Leap Day Babies is one of several
national
groups to celebrate their members' unique special days.
The organization trumpets the fact that leap day is
"an extra day to live! An extra day to have fun!
An extra day to love! An extra day to do something good for someone else."
For locals who beat the 1-to-1,461 odds (that's four
years multiplied by 365 days, plus one leap day) against being
born on leap day, those words ring especially true.
Debra Tomlinson, 13 leap years old
Being a leap year baby all her life has been "kind
of fun" for Debra Tomlinson of
Shelby. Today, she hit 13 in leap years -- at the same time her
daughter, Shirley, heads toward 18. "Her birthdays
come a lot faster than mine,"
she said.
"For my '10th' birthday, my husband (Dick) had a big
party for me." In real-life years, she was 40 then, Tomlinson
said.
Because she often gives her age in leap-years, she said,
friends at that birthday party were all sitting around asking,
"How old are you really?"
In off-years when she didn't have an official day to
celebrate a birthday, she would celebrate it on the weekend before
-- or
the weekend after -- or near her dad's birthday, which falls a
couple of days before her own.
"It was like having two or three birthdays,"
she said.
In a leap year, "when you have a 'real' birthday,
it's kind of nice
you can call a day for yourself," she said.
As she grew up, she could tell people she was both the
'oldest' and 'youngest' child among her siblings.
Tomlinson says it seems as though leap year babies are
rarities. "We're a unique group of people -- there's not too
many
of us."
She knows just a couple of others -- including a
co-worker at Sprint.
Her parents remember at least two other babies born Feb.
19, 1952, at MedCentral/Mansfield Hospital the same day
Tomlinson was. But she doesn't know their names and doesn't think she's ever met them.
Occasionally, though, it's a pain.
There have been times she discovered that computer
software doesn't always recognize
a leap-year birthday. That includes one time when she tried to rent a car. "They'll look at
my license and say 'This date is
not here ... There isn't a Feb. 29th
every year," Tomlinson said.
Usually, clerks find a way to deal with it, after some
discussion.
"It's not like I'm illegal or anything," the
Shelby woman
said.
Hunter Evans, 2 leap years old
According to Michelle Evans of Lucas, her oldest son,
Hunter, seemed destined to be
born Feb. 29. Hunter was born Feb. 29, 1996. He was six weeks
premature and Michelle had to undergo an
emergency Caesarian section.
Hunter celebrates his birthday on Feb. 28 most years,
but he knows this year's birthday -- his eighth,
actually -- is special.
He marked the date on the refrigerator calendar as "Hunter's
birthday."
"It was just confusing to him at first because
he was so young," Michelle said. "We tell him it's a
unique day you were
born on."
"It is hard sometimes to identify with others
when the date isn't there," Michelle said regarding the years in
between
leap years.
But the family has fun nonetheless.
"One of his friend's moms will get him a 'happy
birthday, you're 2' card,"
she said.
Bill Evans, Hunter's father said Hunter's celebration
will involve lots of basketball; Hunter is quite fond of the
Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James.
Hunter got very excited when he spoke about his
unique birth date.
"I like it
because it comes every four years, which means I'm 2," he said.
Topping things off for the Evans family will be one
more birthday in May, that of their youngest son, Gage.
"He'll be turning two in May," Michelle
said. "It's the goofiest thing in the world, they'll both be the same
age
this year, and a few years down the line, Gage will
actually be older."
Linda Kelso, 13 leap years old
People always remember Linda Kelso's birthday.
The Mansfield resident says
she is one of the lucky
few born Feb. 29.
"It makes every four years a little more
special," she said. "It's a little more fun and it's more fun for
people who
know me. And people always remember my birthday."
The Philadelphia native was born in New Jersey in
1952, the second of two daughters. She said her mother
always made a big deal out of her birthday, celebrating Feb. 28
and March 1 each year.
Linda, 52, said she would get to pick a special
dinner, and spent time with family and friends for her birthday.
When she was 16 (4 in leap years), her parents planned a big party, with a cake that gave tribute to one of her
favorite bands, the Beatles.
Unfortunately, that birthday, she did not get to
enjoy it.
"They put the
cake in the garage and the dog ate it,"
Linda laughed. "We had all these hungry people."
But nothing could spoil her special day. She said she
finds when leap year rolls around, it makes her birthday
even more special, and she gets more birthday cards.
Normally, she plans a bash to celebrate, but this
year will be a little more tame. She plans a quiet
evening with
husband, Bill, going to dinner and seeing a movie.
She plans a lunch with friends as well. Linda is a
licensed professional clinical counselor who provides
individual, marriage and family counseling. She said she
has understood since she was little that being born
Feb. 29 was special.
"It's
so unique," Linda said. "We're in a group of unique
people."
Ty Bolen, 1 leap year old
.
Ben
and Jody Bolen of rural Ashland say they have "a special
leap day blessing."
After 14 years of marriage, they thought they would
never be able to conceive a child.
"I guess God works in his own time, not
ours," Jody Bolen said.
Today,
they will celebrate their son's first real
birthday on leap day with friends and family at the Richland
Carrousel Park.
"I became pregnant and our son, Ty, arrived
three weeks early and was born on leap day 2000, so he
hasn't
had a real birthday yet," Jody Bolen said. "So
far it hasn't been a problem because he's not old enough
to
realize that Feb. 29 doesn't come every year."
But the Bolens themselves disagree on when they
should celebrate Ty's birthday -- Ben thinks it should
be
March 1 because Ty was not yet born on Feb. 28, while
Jody says Ty was not born in March but was born
in February so it should be the 28th.
"The last few years, we have celebrated when it
works out to be most convenient," she said.
"As he gets
older. We will let Ty decide when he wants to celebrate
his birthday."
Joyce Webb, 14 leap years old.
Joyce (Ziegler) Webb and the four other baby girls
born Feb. 29, 1948, in
Mansfield General Hospital were featured on the
front page of the News Journal on March 1 of that year.
"(There was) a nice story and picture of us
all," she said. "Then again on our 'third' (12th) birthday (Feb. 29,
1960), we
all got together again at my parents house for a party, and that
was also covered by the News
Journal with a picture and nice
article."
The other babies were Cheryl Diane (Smith) Ketterman,
Karen Lee Ritchie, Mary Jane Young and Kathy Fox.
Webb said that 1960 party was the first time the five
leap-year babies had all been together since their births,
and it
turned out to be the last time.
"Just
three of us celebrated together on our second/eighth birthdays," she
said. "We have
lost contact with each other and have not been together since 1960."
Brent Haag, 4 leap years old
.
The Mansfield resident admitted when people ask him
how old he is, he liked to
say he will be 4 on his next birthday.
Born in a leap year, the Mansfield Senior High School sophomore has
had
only four "real" birthdays, but he will be 16 years
old today.
Brent was born Feb. 29, 1988, at MedCentral/Mansfield
Hospital.
"When I was 6 or so and kids would say
I was 1,
I would get mad," he said. Now it does not bother him when
people joke about his leap year-affected
age.
Mother Dana Haag said her first child was supposed to
be due March 4. No one expected Brent early
because, as her
first, most expected him to be late. But on Feb. 28, she went into
labor.
"I was in labor for 39 hours," she said.
"That's almost a work week."
And Brent came on Leap Day. Dana, 44,
of Mansfield
said she hoped he would be the only Leap Day baby that year, but
several other mothers also
delivered on this special day.
Brent said the one thing that bothers him is when
people do not understand.
"They don't understand I get a
birthday every
year," Brent said.
But his family has always celebrated his birth with
gatherings each year. "I have let him have a birthday every
year," Dana said.
Brother Torrey Sams, 8, smirked, "I
wouldn't."
Dana laughed. Torrey said he would make his brother
wait
every four years to have a birthday, but luckily, Mom does not
see it the same way. Usually, the family
celebrates by picking a weekend around Feb. 28 to celebrate. As a kid, Brent admitted
loving parties, but as
a teenager, he is not so into them.
He said he hopes to get a car for this birthday.
When Leap Year comes around, Dana said she always
plans
a special surprise for her first born. The family was
not sure how they would celebrate this year.
As for Brent, he likes the idea of being a leap year
baby.
"I think it's cool," he said.
Want
a scientific explanation?
News Journal staff report
MANSFIELD
-- Ask a scientific-type what
Leap Year is and why it exists and
he or she
may give you an answer like this:
"The mean time between two successive vernal
equinoxes is called a tropical year and it is about
365.2422 days long (a
day used in the sense of "mean solar day,"
which is the mean time between two transits of the sun
across the meridian
of the observer).
This means that it takes 365.2422 days for
the earth to make one revolution around
the sun
(the time is takes to orbit the
sun).
"Using
a calendar with 365 days would result in an error of 0.2422
days or almost 6 hours per year," that scientist may
continue. "After 100 years, this calendar would be more
than 24 days ahead of the seasons (tropical year), which is
not a
desirable situation. It is desirable to align the calendar
with the seasons, and make the difference as small as
possible.
"By
adding leap years approximately every
fourth year, this difference between
the calendar
and the seasons can be
reduced significantly, and the calendar will follow the
seasons much more closely
than
without
leap years."
Of
course, there is a much simpler, if a little less
informative, answer.
In
layman's terms, leap years are needed so the calendar is in
alignment with the earth's motion around the sun.
Figuring
when leap years will fall does not take a mathematician --
usually. But there are some rules beyond those
commonly associated with leap year that help ensure the
seasons will stay right where we like them.
According
to the U.S. Naval Observatory's Astronomical Applications
Department, in the Gregorian calendar -- used by
most modern countries -- the following tenets dictate which
years are leap years:
every
year divisible by 4 is a leap year, but ... every
year divisible by 100 is not a leap year;
unless
the year is also divisible by 400, then it still is a leap
year.
So, the years 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are
not leap years, while 2000 and 2400 are - although
2000 was the first time the third rule was used in many
parts of the world that adopted the leap year calendar
within
the last 400 years, the Astronomical Applications
Department points out.
Leap Year history
The Gregorian calendar year is intended to be of the
same length as the cycle of the seasons, according to the
Astronomical Applications Department. However, the cycle
of the seasons, technically known as the "tropical
year,"
is about 365.2422 days.
"Because a calendar year consists of an integral
number of whole days, a calendar year cannot exactly match
the
tropical year, so if the calendar year always consisted of
365 days, it would be short of the tropical year by about
0.2422 days every year," the department says.
Over a century, the calendar and the seasons would
depart by about 24 days, so that the beginning of spring
in the
northern hemisphere would shift from March 20 to April 13,
according to the department.
"To synchronize the calendar and tropical years,
leap days are periodically added to the calendar, forming
leap
years," the department says.
If a leap day is added every fourth year, the average
length of the calendar year is 365.25 days.
"This was the basis of the Julian calendar,
introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. In this case, the
calendar year
is longer than the tropical year by about 0.0078
days," the Astronomical Applications Department says.
"Over
a century, this difference accumulates to a little over
three quarters of a day."
So from the time of Julius Caesar to the 16th century
A.D., the beginning of spring shifted from March 23 to
March 11, according to the department.
When Pope Gregory XIII instituted the Gregorian
calendar in 1582, the calendar was shifted to make the
beginning
of spring fall on March 21 and a new system of leap days
was introduced. But instead of intercalating a leap day
every fourth year, 97 leap days would be introduced every
400 years, according to the leap year rule.
"Thus, the average Gregorian calendar year is
365.2425 days in length. This agrees to within a half a
minute of the
length of the tropical year," the Astronomical
Applications Department says.
It will take about 3,300 years before the Gregorian
calendar is as much as one day out of step with the
seasons, it says.
