As the 30th anniversary of the Blizzard of 1978 arrives today, Lauren Healy, Rachel Lockhart, Amy Christensen, twin brothers Marc and Jim Kelly, and a couple of thousand other Massachusetts natives can celebrate turning 29 1/4. Or thereabouts.
Count them as Blizzard Babies, a crop of people who can be eternally grateful that Mom and Dad got cooped up during the epic storm of Feb. 6 and 7, 1978, and saw their confinement bear fruit about 40 weeks later.
Despite the urban legend that births spike nine months after events such as the '78 blizzard, the 1965 blackout, and other natural disasters that leave couples stuck at home, state data show that births actually dropped markedly around Nov. 13, 1978, which would have been the due date for a baby conceived the night the storm raged.
But being the parent of a Blizzard Baby still makes for a great story.
"Like everybody else, we stayed home. And did things," said Jim Healy, father of Lauren, who was delivered five days before her Nov. 13 due date and today works in finance in New York City. Jim Healy in February 1978 was working as a nuclear-power consulting engineer for Stone & Webster in Boston and had just returned to the Milton home he shared with his wife, Helen, and daughter Stephanie, then 2, after an extended work project outside Pittsburgh.
Healy remembers being sent home from work about 2 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 6, as the snow and wind intensified. He slogged his way home from the Mattapan trolley and was stuck at the house for days.
"I don't know what night it was or what afternoon it was" that led to Lauren coming along, he said, but he remembers it being a cozy week at home. "We can't go shopping; we can't go to work," Healy said with a laugh.
In Methuen, Carolyn Fritchy and her husband, Jim, were snowed in and blacked out. Their daughter, Amy Christensen, was born the following Nov. 1, earlier than her Nov. 13 expected date.
Carolyn Fritchy, who now works in human resources at high-tech manufacturer Parlex USA Inc. in Methuen, recalls the scenario that led to Amy.
"I think it's more that it was cold," she said. "We had lost the electricity. No TV, no radio. I think it was mostly trying to stay warm."
She also remembers her husband finally being able to get out of the house and take a sled down to Walter's Variety Store, which her parents owned, to get some provisions, only to have neighbors swarm into the shop once they saw the door open.
With no money to make change, Jim Fritchy let everyone take food and drinks and sign IOUs. "Everyone was as good as their word" about repaying, she recalled.
Roni Raisman of Sharon counts her Blizzard Baby, Rachel Lockhart, born on Nov. 10, 1978, as a miracle.
"How I ever wound up getting pregnant with Rachel, I'll never know," said Raisman, who keeps the books for a family business in Framingham that sells auto body shop equipment. "My husband and I were barely talking to each other, and we wound up getting divorced. She was a total surprise."
Not to mention that during the week of the blizzard she had a 1-year-old daughter sick with pneumonia who ultimately had to be taken to the hospital by snowmobile and police car. "I absolutely to this day don't remember how or when it happened, but I am very glad," said Raisman, who remarried in 1989. "She's a wonderful daughter, all a mother could ever ask for."
Rachel Lockhart now runs a makeup studio on Newbury Street.
Records from the state Department of Public Health show that, contrary to expectations, there was a baby bust nine months after the storm. From Nov. 10 through 20, 1978, when most children conceived during the storm and its snowbound aftermath would be born, 2,003 babies entered the world in Massachusetts. That was the third-smallest number of births during that time of month in all of 1977 and 1978 and about 5 percent fewer births than the average for the other months.
To a statistician, that's not a significant drop, but it can inspire some speculation. Maybe by the second or third night stuck together at home, it wasn't quite so romantic? Or after digging out from several feet of snow, folks weren't up for much more exertion?
Dan and Patti Kelly of Rockland think of their twin sons, Jim and Marc, as Blizzard Babies, but with a twist: When Dan was finally released from two weeks of National Guard cleanup duty, it was an opportunity for them to start a Blizzard Baby, or two. The Kelly twins were born a month shy of their due date, which was Nov. 25, exactly nine months after a "blizzard survivors party" Dan and Patti attended.
In 1978, the couple lived in Wollaston, and Dan was commuting to a sales job at a Waltham computer supply company. The Air Force veteran had joined the Massachusetts National Guard in 1975 for extra income and was called up by Governor Michael S. Dukakis for duty after the '78 blizzard hit. He spent two weeks rescuing stranded motorists and driving doctors through snow-clogged streets.
The weekend Dan Kelly returned to civilian life, friends in Revere invited them up for the party, and then Dan spent the following week sleeping in his Waltham office as he caught up on work that piled up during his Guard service.
Patti Kelly said she's sure the night of the party led to Marc, a photographer in New York City, and Jim, a fitness-center manager in West Hollywood, Calif.
"Dan was gone for four nights after that, so I know exactly the night," Patti Kelly said. "There was no question about it."
Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.
