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Victoria grandmother celebrates her 15th birthday

After waiting 60 years, Carmen Lockstedt will finally celebrate her 15th birthday on Wednesday. Born on the 29th of February, Lockstedt has a different perspective, "I think it's my secret to staying young." Lockstedt's granddaughter Alex Fiew, a senior at St. Joseph High School, is 18.
  • Melissa Crowe •
  • Originally published February 28, 2012 at 11:57 a.m., updated February 28, 2012 at 11:05 p.m.

  • Notable Leap Day Events:

  • 1904: Theodore Roosevelt appointed a seven-man committee to study the Panama Canal in the hopes of expediting the massive project. The Canal, completed in 1914, cost the U.S. $387 billion.

    1928: The voting age for women in the U.S. was ...

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    • Notable Leap Day Events:

    1904: Theodore Roosevelt appointed a seven-man committee to study the Panama Canal in the hopes of expediting the massive project. The Canal, completed in 1914, cost the U.S. $387 billion.

    1928: The voting age for women in the U.S. was reduced from 31 to 21. Not everyone agreed with increasing women's rights, however. The International Rotary Club refused Lady Aster and Lady Rhodes's request to organize women's Rotary clubs in England.

    1940: Hattie McDaniel became the first black woman to win an Oscar for her role in "Gone With the Wind." The film received eight Oscars that night, including best picture, best actress, best actor and best director.

    1968: The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band won the Grammy for Best Album of the Year.

    2000: The first centenary leap day in 400 years, the second since Pope Gregory adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582.

  • By the bumbers

  • -- Nine babies were born on Feb. 29, 2000, making it the most leap-day births in Victoria County.

    -- One baby was born Feb. 29, 1912 in Victoria County, making that person 100 years old today with only 25 birthdays.

After waiting 60 years, Carmen Lockstedt will finally celebrate her 15th birthday Wednesday.

Lockstedt, a Victoria retired special education counselor, said her special birthday is her "secret to staying young."

When she realized her 60th was approaching this year, she promptly corrected herself.

"No, it's not," she said. "It's only my 15th birthday."

Lockstedt's granddaughter, Alex Fiew, who has celebrated 18 birthdays, encourages her to think young.

"It's her quince this year," Fiew said. "In four years, it'll be her Sweet 16 ... but I guess buying a car is out of the question."

Lockstedt's birthday rolls around once every four years as the result of a system intended to keep the seasons, years, months and days in working order.

Although leaplings will never have a "Golden Birthday," when the day and age match, and they might run into problems with bartenders on their 21st birthday, they have a special predicament being born on the least probable day: an even greater reason to celebrate when "real birthdays" come around.

When Lockstedt was younger, her odd birthdate befuddled her friends.

"They said it didn't make sense," Lockstedt said. "It wasn't on the calendar."

She simplified and just told people her birthday was the last day of February.

"When we had a real one, it was always special," she said.

Not many 60-year-olds go snow-skiing for their 15th birthdays, or celebrate with hundreds of other leaplings in a giant parade and a cake too big to fit in the room at the Worldwide Leap Year Birthday Club in Anthony, N.M.

For her 40th birthday, Lockstedt made a grand entrance by parachuting from 10,000 feet into her backyard party.

If her Feb. 29 birth has had any effect on her personality, it is only that she maintains an upbeat perspective.

"It's kept me motivated to have lots more birthdays," she said. "I celebrate year round. I figure I have the right to since it's not on the calendar."

According to records from the Victoria City Secretary's office, Victoria County has seen 54 leap day births in the past 100 years.

Cindy Kelly, a nurse at the Community Mother and Child Health Center, said a patient has her birth scheduled for Wednesday.

"She chose it," Kelly said. "It was kind of neat. It's her first baby and she said, 'Let's go all out.'"

Lockstedt said she thinks the numbers are skewed.

"Back then, you had your baby when you had your baby," she said.

The ease in practically scheduling childbirth "throws everything off," Lockstedt said.

She draws from a recent conversation with a pregnant friend who was due around Leap Day.

Despite Lockstedt's insistence, the woman opted for a "normal" calendar birth.

"It's always been a real positive thing for me in my life," Lockstedt said. "People ask, 'When's your birthday,' and I can say, 'I don't have a birthday.'"