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Monday, November 24, 1997

Sixteen years after birth of quads, a father reflects

EDITOR'S NOTE - Joe Muench is a sports columnist for the El Paso Times. His wife, Sheila, gave birth to quadruplets June 12, 1981.

By JOE MUENCH El Paso Times

EL PASO, Texas - Seventeen years ago, they told us we had an instant basketball team, a set of healthy quadruplets to go with 5-year-old Joseph, who'd automatically be captain and play center.

Wednesday in Des Moines, a whole new future tax base was born for the small town of Carlisle, Iowa, population 3,200. Bobbi McCaughey, 29, gave birth, by Caesarean section, to septuplets - four boys and three girls.

So how does dad Kenny feel about that now? I'm betting he's calm.

I think I was calm. No, not numb. I was so relieved that we had four new healthy children and a healthy wife that it wasn't until later I gave thought to supporting them the next 18 or 20 years.

In such situations, the husband wants his wife, and the father wants his children. So you pray for everybody and pray fast.

"What about college?" a reporter asked me that day.

I had a snap answer, and to this day I feel the same way. "No way I can save that much, so I'm not going to try."

I joked, "Just give them books for birthdays and Christmas, and we'll hope for scholarships."

Fact is, we still haven't saved for the car insurance, and I'm whispering "Elope" in my daughters' ears.

But the real fact is, Sheila and I, long before the phrase became popular, "just did it." If you have to feed all the babies every five hours, then you feed them. Sheila didn't get a full night's sleep for two and a half years. I learned to be an afternoon nanny while Sheila enjoyed doing the food shopping - she being the only smiling face in the entire supermarket. When she got home, I headed outside. I'd become a gardener.

But most of the time was kids' time. Joseph helped a lot. "Here, feed these two, Joseph."

Family helped, too, but we had to laugh every time someone said, "Surely you need some maids." Sort of like "Upstairs, Downstairs," they all figured.

No, we had no live-in help. There was no place on the floor for another set of feet.

I'm sure now. I really was calm. This may sound funny, but there really wasn't time to lose cool.

Sheila, though, was the cool-est. Feed, diaper, bathe, nap, feed, diaper, play ... put on the pajamas.

And who was the wise guy who coined the phrase, "Do it today because tomorrow never comes."

It came, and came. Feed, diaper, bathe, nap, feed ... . The kids had a lot to do with it. They really were good babies - Matt, Marisa, Courtney and Ryan. They're juniors now at Coronado High, and all those books definitely helped. The girls are in the National Honor Society, and the boys have never been nailed by no-pass, no-play on the baseball team.

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