By Ashley Stewart

Owatonna People’s Press

BLOOMING PRAIRIE — Charlie Mollenhauer doesn’t make a big deal out of birthdays, even when it only comes around every four years.

Yes, he’s a Leap Day baby.

But Mollenhauer doesn’t make much of that either.

“He was always a working man,” said Mollenhauer’s oldest daughter, Jacqualyn Phelps of Owatonna. “He worked a lot, especially when he was hauling milk. He didn’t have time for much socializing.”

Mollenhauer was born on Feb. 29, 1920 — nearly 96 years ago, but Monday will mark his 24th birthday.

He chuckles at the thought Thursday at Prairie Manor Care Center in Blooming Prairie.

Mollenhauer grew up on a farm east of Medford and graduated from Medford High School in 1938.

“He grew up when there were no tractors, so they did everything with horses,” Phelps said. “They raised Belgium horses, and that’s what they used to do all their field work.”

The family farmed more than 100 acres of crops, Mollenhauer said, and had pigs, chickens, ducks, cows and even turkeys.

“That was a lot of work,” he said.

In the late 1940s, Mollenhauser married his wife, Elnora, and they moved to Claremont where they had three daughters: Phelps, Cheri Olson and Sandie Reed.

And in the 1950s, he began his 36-year career as a milk hauler for Mid-America.

“When he was milking, if he didn’t do it, he’d have to pay somebody else to do it,” Phelps said. “He hardly ever took a day off. He didn’t have a regular vacation, didn’t have weekends off. It didn’t matter what the weather was.”

After retiring as a milk hauler in the 1980s, Mollenhauser hauled fertilizer and working at the Owatonna Canning Company until the late 1990s.

He spent many of his birthdays doing some line of work, he said.

“When it wasn’t farm work, it was something else,” Mollenhauser said.

And when asked why he worked so much and so long, he answered, “To keep from starving to death.”

“He was born in that era where you work hard to provide for your family,” Phelps said. “He was used to working his whole life.”

But on Sunday, about 30 members of Mollenhauser’s family will take time to celebrate his 24th birthday — and 96th year — with cake and ice cream.

“I don’t know that I even put the age [on the cake],” Phelps said. “I should’ve put 24 on it.”

She admits the family hasn’t really made a big deal about his Leap Day birthday, but they try and make a point to celebrate his birthday when they can.

Mollenhauser said his mother would always do something for his birthday.

“When I was going to school, a lot of times she would have a birthday party,” he said recalling parties on his 12th and 16th birthdays with family and friends.

And now, he can add 96.