Funny, you don't look ...
Times Staff Report
Barbara Alonzo turns 16 today.
So will her first grandchild, Chelsea, in a few months.
The teenage twosome plan a summer of shopping and boy watching -- just don't tell Alonzo's husband
of 43 years, Albert.
Tony Hill is just 6 today -- "not really old enough to do anything," he complains -- but he's already the
lead guitarist in the punk rock band Egnaro (that's orange spelled backward) and a volunteer firefighter
for the Lynwood Fire Department.
To celebrate his day, he'll be out drinking with friends. "Hopefully they accept my fake ID," he quips.
Mercantile National Bank in Crown Point puts its financial faith in the hands of another 6-year-old, John
Kryza, of Portage. "I'm a quick learner," he said. "I had a major growth spurt around 5."
Kryza's getting a birthday cake with little race cars and the pinata from co-workers to help him celebrate.
Alonzo, Hill and Kryza are leap year day babies, of course.
Only one out of every 1,461 people is born Feb. 29, according to Leapzine, an online newsletter for
Leapers as it calls them.
According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the actual length of a year -- the rotation of the Earth around the
sun -- is 365.2422 days. Without leap years every four years, the seasons would shift about a quarter of
a day every year. After 100 years, the seasons would be off by 25 days, the almanac said.
"There's something special about being a leap year baby," said the Rev. Steve Schunenman of St. Timothy
Episcopal Church in Griffith. "Everyone should have something that makes them special. Sometimes you
just have to discover what that is."
Schunenman was just a precocious 6-year-old when he joined the ministry; "now I'm all grown up at 12,"
he said.
Vicki Wayne will be the same age today as her daughter, Charlie -- 9. Like any preteen, she's looking
forward to presents. After all, she's been waiting three long years.
If Alice Rodriguez could leap back in time to her leap year age, 14, she'd be back home in Alabama with
her twin sister, Alline, and four other siblings.
"We grew up always on some kind of an adventure," she said. Alline lives a few doors away from her in
Hammond, but neither do much leaping anymore.
Just saying her age aloud makes Rodriguez feel younger, but she said she sure gets some strange looks.
Zackery Glasen says he acts his age -- 4.
"I'm the biggest kid out of my friends," said the Munster High School football team offensive and defensive
lineman who's having great fun with his unique birthday.
The leap year gives Lynne Eismin, of Munster, two 2-year-olds six years apart. Her son,
Zackary, was born
into a little bit of fame eight years ago as the first baby born on leap year day at the University of Chicago.
All the TV stations filmed him.
Matthew Virus' little brother, Joseph, 7, may be older than he is today -- 3 -- "but I'm more mature," he said.
Matthew surprised parents Matt and Millie when he appeared six weeks early 12 years ago. He became their
miracle.
"It is neat to have a leap year baby," she said. They celebrate the miracle every Feb. 28.
It can be "kind of embarrassing. Kids think you're a big baby," Matthew said. "Otherwise it's quite cool. You
get a special day to be born."
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