'Leapers' get their birthdays today

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Kirk Weatherford will celebrate his eighth birthday today, though he was born in 1972.

That's because the Poplar Bluff man is one of only 0.0684 percent of the world's population born on Feb. 29, the leap day added to the calendar once every four years.

"My mom tells me that when I was 5 or 6 I used to cry because I didn't see my birthday on the calendar and thought I wouldn't get a party," Weatherford said.

He did always get a party, just not usually on the actual date of his birthday, said Weatherford.

Most people take for granted celebrating birthdays every year. Not so "leapers," as they have been called. For that, the rest of us should be grateful.

Without a Feb. 29, over the course of hundreds of years, Valentine's Day would come to be celebrated with swimming parties and there would be snowstorms on the Fourth of July.

That's because the time it takes for the Earth to travel once around the sun isn't a round number. Instead, it is 365.24219 days. That extra fraction of a day eventually created seasonal confusion with early calendars.

Then in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decreed that a leap day would be added to the calendar every four years, except years ending in 00 unless the year is divisible by 400. So 2000 was a leap year, but 1900 wasn't.

Problem solved, except for those born on a leap day.

McKenzie Damron and Abbey Ursery, both second-graders at O'Neal Elementary School, have felt a little deprived, even though both said their families celebrate their birthdays Feb. 28 in normal years.

McKenzie said she was surprised the first time she looked at a calendar and saw her birthday wasn't there. "I thought it was a joke," she said.

This year, Abbey will celebrate at Skate City and McKenzie at the Black River Coliseum pool.

"I'm just so excited that it's finally coming up," Abbey said.

To Weatherford, it's just another birthday, though he is planning a celebration tonight.

"The only person who gives me a hard time about it is my nephew, who's 10. He's always telling me he's older than I am," Weatherford said. "He never fails to mention it."