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2/29/2008 10:59:00 AM |
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ALEX PAJUNAS
— The Daily Astorian
Gail Johnson, who
will be celebrating
her 14th birthday on
Leap Day today,
looks over a list of
other famous “leaplings,”
including Superman
as proclaimed by
Time magazine, actor
Dennis Farina,
motivational speaker
Tony Robbins and
jazz musician Jimmy
Dorsey. |
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ALEX PAJUNAS
— The Daily Astorian
In the days leading
up to Ed Hauer Jr.’s
Leap Year birthday
he was unaware he
shared the birthday
with fellow Astoria
resident Gail
Johnson. The Honor
Society for Leap
Year Day Babies, an
Internet birthday
club, hopes to
change that. Its
7,200 members strong
and growing every
four years. |
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Leaplings party
on tap at Rogue Ales
Public House |
Leap Day babies and
their friends and
family are invited
to "leap back to the
'80s" at the Rogue
Ales Public House on
Pier 39 at 5:30 p.m.
today. Everyone is
encouraged to dress
in 1980s attire. The
party is for all
ages before 9 p.m.
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'You can do anything you want
when you have a birthday every four
years'
Astoria’s ‘leaplings’ get their
chance to celebrate their real date
of birth today
By CASSANDRA PROFITA
The Daily Astorian
A few years ago, Astoria resident
Gail Johnson's phone rang at
midnight Feb. 28.
"Happy Birth-" the caller started to
say. "Oops! I'm sorry. It's over."
That year, the clock leaped right
over Johnson's Feb. 29 birth date.
By 12:01 a.m., it was March 1.
As a Leap Day baby - sometimes
called a "leapling" - Johnson gets a
real birthday only once every four
years. So, although she was born in
1952, she's actually celebrating her
14th birthday today.
"I'm definitely not aging well," she
jokes.
Astoria resident Ed Hauer Jr. is
unusual for someone with only 16
birthdays. He has three kids, 14
grandkids and owns a lawn mower
business.
Today is technically his sweet 16,
but because he was born Feb. 29,
1944, he isn't exactly leaping to
celebrate.
"I've got so much to get done," he
said. "My birthday doesn't mean too
much to me."
His wife, Diane, is pretty excited,
though.
"We're getting him his driver's
license this year," she joked.
'Do anything you want?'
With a birthday that comes
so infrequently, Johnson said she
has a tendency to forget about it.
But she's found a lot of old friends
remember her when Leap Day comes
around.
"You get cards from people you
haven't heard from in a long time,"
she said. "It's like they save it
up."
She and Hauer only celebrate their
real birth dates; they don't pick an
alternative day to celebrate each
year.
"People say, 'You should celebrate
on the 28th,'" said Johnson. "But I
wasn't born on the 28th. Or they
say, 'Well, you should celebrate on
the first.' But I wasn't born on the
first."
Having a Leap Day birthday can cause
complications with driver's license
renewals and birth certificates, but
it doesn't change much about
everyday life.
"I get to pay the same fees and go
through the same heartaches as
everybody else does," said Hauer.
Sometimes playing the Leap Day card
can bring free meals and discounts.
It can also earn leaplings the right
to go beyond normal birthday
celebrations.
One year Johnson took the
once-every-four-years opportunity to
treat a group of "rather
conservative" volunteer firefighters
to a drag show in Portland.
"You can do anything you want when
you have a birthday every four
years," she said.
When he was growing up, Hauer got to
choose the day he celebrated his
birthday on nonleap years.
"Sometimes, depending on the day of
the week, it was maybe on the 28th
or maybe on the first. Maybe the
second," he said. "You can move it.
You have options."
The history
It's pretty easy for Johnson and
Hauer to keep track of which years
they'll be able to celebrate their
real birthdays.
Leap years, for the most part, are
those divisible by four; they're
also the ones typically reserved for
Olympic games and U.S. presidential
elections.
The logic behind Leap Year dates
back to 45 B.C. when Julius Caesar
created the 365-day calendar to keep
annual festivals in their rightful
seasons. He added a 366th day to
every fourth year to make up for the
fact that the actual length of a
year - the time it takes the Earth
to revolve around the sun - is
365.242 days.
The Leap Day was added to the end of
February because that was the last
month of the year at the time.
However, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII
moved the end of the year to Dec. 31
so Easter would occur in the spring.
He also recognized that because the
year is slightly less than 365.25
days long, adding an extra day every
four years results in about three
extra days over a period of 400
years. So, only one out of every
four centennial years is considered
a Leap Year.
That means the year 2000 was a Leap
Year, but 1900 wasn't and 2100 won't
be.
Teaming up
Raenell Dawn of Keizer wants all
leaplings to know they're not alone.
A leapling herself, she co-founded
the Honor Society of Leap Year Day
Babies, an Internet birthday club
that's 7,200 members strong.
In a world of "annuals," she and
Peter Brouwer of Vancouver, British
Columbia, have carved out a place
for Leap Day babies to meet each
other and share their experiences.
For the past 24 years - six leap
years - they've also made it their
mission to educate people about Leap
Day.
Leap Day is all about order, Dawn
said. "It maintains a balance
between the calendar and the
spinning Earth."
She advocates making Leap Day a
national holiday and marking it on
the calendar.
"It's everyone's extra day, and we
encourage everyone to celebrate it,"
she said. "Party like it happens
once every four years."
Johnson and Hauer agreed Leap Day
should be a holiday.
"Presidents get their day," said
Hauer. "Why don't we get one?"
Knowing the history of Leap Day,
Dawn said, it's ironic that
companies don't mark the day on
calendars.
"It's the day that celebrates the
calendar," she said. "They're
missing their own day."
Meeting another leapling is a rare
and exciting event, said Johnson,
who hadn't heard of the honor
society.
"You don't meet them very often, and
when you do it's really strange,"
she said.
Hauer and Johnson said they didn't
know they were fellow Astoria
leaplings.
"Now we're going to have to have a
cocktail together," said Hauer.
"'Course I'm going to have to wait
until I'm 21, won't I?" |
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