BY MIKE MOORE
Journal Times | Posted: Thursday, February 28, 2008 12:00 am
Had he forgotten his anniversary the past three years, technically Greg Schick would've been covered.
His wife, Kathy, and he were married on Feb. 29, 2004, making today their first official anniversary. He's always done his husbandly duty anyway.
"I still give her a card as close to the date as possible," he said.
Something about their relationship cried out for a unique wedding date. Maybe it's genetic, knowing his grandmother got hitched on Christmas Eve when she lived in Russia.
As the couple zeroed in on February, they searched for a day to make it memorable. Valentine's Day? Nah, too overdone. Groundhog Day? Too soon.
With their kids as witnesses, they stood in their living room and tied the knot on a holiday the calendar doesn't even acknowledge. It gives them a chuckle, not that they typically need an excuse to laugh.
Today, for a small segment of the population, TGIF is overshadowed by TGILD - Thank God It's Leap Day.
"We joke about having to put a notch up on the wall every four years," Greg said.
Leap Day babies, on the other hand, have zero say in the matter. They pop out on whichever date gravity and the doctor tell them.
Becca McCray digs being one. She turns 24 today, or 6 if you take things literally. She handles the jokes about being big for her age in stride.
"I'm very good at giving it, too, so you have to be able to take it back," she said.
The 2002 graduate of St. Catherine's High now soaks in the rays from Boca Raton, Fla., where she's closing in on a master's degree. When we talked, she planned to have her mom and maternal grandmother down for the big weekend. Apparently they're not sticklers to make her go four years without that homemade chocolate cake.
For some reason, friends typically call her on the 28th, family on the 1st of March. Not everyone is fully briefed on the mystery of Leap Year, she's noticed. Some think it comes every two years, others every six.
Just more ammo for the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies. The Internet club for those with Feb. 29 birthdays wants Congress to declare it an official holiday. That and to point out that, unlike some neurotic critter's shadow, Leap Day actually does affect the seasons.
People can adapt. Many computers can't, which is Leap Day babies' biggest beef.
"We estimate at least half our members have had problems with legal documents, such as a driver's license, that gets our birthday wrong," Honor Society co-founder Raenell Dawn wrote in a press release.
Those of us born on one of the other 365 days never notice that kind of stuff. From the personal stories the Leap Day babies submitted, I can tell they're able to laugh about most of it.
"I could have beat the draft in 1942 because I had only four birthdays, and the draft said that you had to register on your 18th birthday," one guy wrote on the group's Web site, http://www.leapyearday.com. "But I know how the government works, they would be knocking at my door in 1996 saying 'we want you now!' So I enlisted."
Clearly, there's a man with wisdom beyond his age.
Mike Moore can be reached at (262) 631-1724 or
mike.moore@lee.net