‘Oldest’ Twins Have a Great Day

--The chances of it happening were one in 500 million, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. But odds aside, Allie Grubb Hill and Maggie Grubb Lambeth of Denton, N.C., were basking in the glow of a very special birthday celebration. Not only did they achieve a remarkable milestone in reaching their 103rd birthday, but they did it as perhaps the nation’s oldest twins. Their celebration at the Mountain Vista Health Park nursing home, where Lambeth resides, was made all the more memorable after they received President Reagan’s congratulations, which were delivered by Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.). And Gov. James G. Martin sent along a letter congratulating the sisters on the comfort they have given each other over the many, many years. “They make like they don’t like (the attention), but they really do,” said Lambeth’s daughter, Magalene Lambeth. All told, the sisters have 180 direct descendants, including 16 living children, 48 grandchildren, 85 great-grandchildren and 31 great-great-grandchildren. Lambeth has been at the nursing home since last month, and five of Hill’s children keep her at their homes month-to-month. While the twins enjoy good health, they have difficulty walking. Still, Magalene said: “Maggie was out raking the yard when she was 100.” A spokeswoman for the Guinness Book in New York said that the latest edition had not listed any older twins.

--Four out of 10 Americans say they have had contact with the dead, according to the Rev. Andrew Greeley, who helped write a survey asking people about experiences with the supernatural. About 60% of those polled also said they had experienced extrasensory perception. The results of the 1985 survey, conducted by Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center and based on random interviews of 1,500 people nationwide, “indicate an almost common experience in American society,” said Greeley, an author, Catholic priest and research associate at the center. In a similar poll Greeley helped to write in 1972, only 25% said they had been in touch with a dead person, he said. He attributed the increase to “a change in people’s willingness to talk about such experiences.”

--Ali Hassan Mwinyi takes a hands-on approach to his job. Shovel in hand, the Tanzanian president led more than 500 of his countrymen in a campaign to repair a major road outside the East African capital of Dar es Salaam, where axle-breaking potholes have turned the highways into obstacle courses. Mwinyi filled a five-foot-wide hole with stones, which he then pounded with a sledgehammer, apparently to show that street maintenance need not wait for expensive machinery.