Texas-New Mexico Border Town Finds
Identity with Festival Every Four Years
By ALLAN TURNER
Houston Chronicle
ANTHONY, Texas - For decades, this hamlet on the Texas-New Mexico line
languished in obscurity
beneath the cruel desert sun. It was a swell place
to raise onions. And the sand storms really weren't
all that bad. But as
for fame, glory, respect?
Forget it.
An important state reference book mislocated the town by 20 miles.
Even die-hard Anthonians shrugged when asked how the town got its name.
Maybe it was named for
the nearby mountain said to resemble St. Anthony's
nose; maybe for a former resident named Anthony.
Who really cared?
But all that - the sneers, the yawns, the produce jokes - was before
Anthony, Texas, population 3,328,
crowned itself ``Leap-Year Capital of
the World.''
Now Anthony gets respect.
Thursday - Leap Year Day 1996 - will bring as many as 10,000 tourists
to town for a four-day party
for those whose birthdays come once every
four years. And the celebration will have been worth the
wait.
There will be a parade, carnival, hot-air balloon flight, baseball and
golf tournaments, marathons and
an arts and crafts show. Savings bonds
will be presented the oldest leap year baby and the one who
travels the
farthest to attend the festivities. And, of course, there will be a giant
cake.
In retrospect, the idea of Leap Year Capital of the World seems a
natural for this town 20 miles
northwest of El Paso. But for years, Leap
Year Chairwoman Mary Ann Brown said, the chamber
of commerce struggled
in vain to come up with a lively idea for a festival.
``They considered onions, cotton, pecans, chili - but all those already
had been claimed by someone
else,'' she said. ``Things never got beyond
the talking stage. One member even said that Anthony isn't
the capital
of anything.'' Then eight years ago, Brown - who will celebrate her 16th
leap year birthday
Thursday - talked things over with her leap year
neighbor, Birdie Lewis, who will turn 19, and the
grand party plan leaped
to life.
No one else was doing it, the local auto parts store owner told chamber
members. ``I told them this
was a guaranteed good thing,'' she said. ``And
I told them one of the best things was that we'd have
to gear up for the
festival only every four years. We'd have plenty of time to plan things.''
The initial chamber response was mixed. ``Some just kind of looked
blank,'' Brown recalled last week.
``But
there was one member, David Sell from the local Alpo dog food plant, who
had a broader vision.
He really supported the idea and we got it going.''
Key to the plan, Brown said, was creation of a World Wide Leap Year
Birthday Club - and, of course,
a massive publicity campaign. Articles in
area newspapers quickly brought 23 memberships. But, as the
idea was
broached at a Feb. 1 chamber meeting, there was little time to do more
than plan a very small
birthday party in 1988.
By the end of 1991, though, the World Wide Leap Year Birthday Club
claimed 87 members. And the
1992 celebration, featuring a parade down Main
Street, brought visitors from throughout the United
States. Twenty-three leap year babies attended - the oldest born in 1920 - and
the local Sonic drive-in reported
its best weekend in 17 years.
As Anthony's fame has grown - the festival has received national
television coverage - mail from leap
year babies has poured in. Even a
leap year child from Saudi Arabia wrote to inquire about joining the
group. Club membership has approached 300, and chamber leaders can only
conclude they've tapped
a previously neglected market - those who feel
slighted by a glitch in the Gregorian calendar.
Simply explained, the addition of an extra day to February every four
years is necessary because it takes
365-1/4 days for the earth to make its
annual orbit around the sun. The usual Gregorian year, of course,
officially contains only 365 days.
As a result, some leap year babies always feel slightly out of step
with the rest of the world. ``When it
comes time to celebrate,'' said
local farmer Richard ``Buck'' Sommerville, himself not a leap year child,
``they really celebrate. They have three lost years to make up for.'' A
lone leap year child in a family of
2 children, Birdie Lewis said she
grew up feeling birthday-deprived. ``I always felt cheated,'' the former
Houston resident said.
Lewis, who will be 76 in conventional years Thursday, preferred to
discuss only her leap year age. ``A
woman who will tell her age will tell
anything,'' Lewis said. ``I always say I'm not as old as I look nor as
young as I feel.'' ``You always have to celebrate your birthday on Feb. 28,'' Brown
groused. ``Or, you
could move it up 'til March 1, but then you're not even
in the same month.''
Debbie Apodaca, an El Paso woman who will celebrate her ninth leap year
birthday in Anthony, joked
that such once-in-four-years events are ``great
for husbands.''
For some, the Anthony festival is a chance to dress up; to see and
beseen. In 1992, Brown dressed up
as a
clown and, equipped with broom and
pan, followed the horses to scoop up droppings.
Margarita Evaro of nearby La Mesa, N.M., who will celebrate her
12thleap year birthday, this year will
deck herself out in pink baby
bloomers and bonnet and ride on the local Veterans of Foreign Wars float.
``I'm really excited about it,'' she said. Evaro, who once won a Halloween
contest dressed as a cow, is
somewhat famous for the inventiveness of her
costumes.
``I'm planning to come some year dressed as a streaker,'' she said,
declining to specify the event she will
so favor. On a slightly more serious note, chamber president Ruth Ashby - Brown's
sister - said she thinks the true
value of the festival is the way it
unites the town. ``We view this celebration as a kind of gift to the
community,'' she said. Numerous non-profit groups use festival events as a
way to raise money.
``The festival could mean one less bake sale, less knocking on doors
for these groups,'' she said. ``I don't
think they'll come up with a great
big sum, but they'll have more than they had. And there will be a
tremendous sense of community in doing it.''
Even as the final touches are put on the 1996 leap year celebration,
plans are being discussed for the
year 2000 - the first millenial leap
year since 1600. ``We're already getting excited about it,'' Brown
said,
adding that the celebration will feature ``leaping events.''
``Oh, we'll have a long jump competition, a leapfrog game. Any leaping
thing will be given great emphasis.
``The year 2000 is going to be a really big shindig.''
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