The Slice: Multi-state births not so rare, after all

It turns out quite a few local families can say that each of the kids was born in a different state. In fact, I don’t have room to list them all.

I guess it’s not really surprising, when you consider the number of military families around here.

But it was interesting to hear about how some parents, having noticed this pattern, would approach a move to yet another state with a certain wariness.

“After having four children, each born in a different state (Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland and Iowa), I was a little hesitant to move to Idaho in 1970,” wrote Lorraine Ideus, who now lives in Spokane.

She added that she survived her time in the Gem State “without incident.”

“I have three kids,” wrote Judy Landberg. “First born in Minnesota, second in Missouri and third in Washington. Then I said we would never move again because every time we did I had another baby.”

In addition to having children in different states, quite a few local parents also greeted the arrival of new members of the family in multiple countries.

For instance, Phyllis Adams’ children were born in Germany, Arizona, Washington and the Netherlands.

Bob and JoAnn Auvil’s kids were born in England, Germany, Washington, Georgia and California.

And so on.

But Jenny Egly proposed a different question altogether. “How about asking how many sets of twins were delivered by two different doctors,” she wrote.

That happened to her.

“Dr. Stacie Bering delivered James and then she had to head back to the office. So Tom was delivered two hours later by Dr. Pam Silverstein.”

The twins turn 20 on Friday.

“Slice reader Joel Bonvallet wonders: How many people have injured themselves while trying to open stiff plastic packaging that encases many products nowadays? “They require metal shark gloves and laser cutters to open,” he wrote.

“Contest winners: Several dozen readers knew that the thing “Animal House” and “Local Hero” have in common is actor Peter Riegert, and that “Always” was the 1989 Spielberg movie filmed partly in Libby, Mont.

Bill Carleton, Lee Funkhouser and Mike Kennedy were selected in a drawing to receive the reporter’s notebooks.

“Slice answers: Charlea Schwartz had two responses to “Will this be Spokane’s year?”

“For what?” and “There’s always hope.”

And John Clogg said that those who predicted doom as the year 2000 approached were definitely not adequately mocked after the fact. But perhaps more to the point, he added, the people (computer experts and others) who spent countless hours making sure there was a smooth Y2K transition didn’t receive enough praise.

“Today’s Slice question: Where are you going for summer vacation?