Birthday

53 years ago today, I came into the world, (almost in the car). I was the third girl for my mother and apparently we are built the same. (She also could be a bush woman; we could have gone out behind a rock and squatted) For some strange reason, the Doctors used to advise women to drink a little castor oil if they were close to their due date, and it would bring on labor. That is exactly what my mother did and exactly what happened. 53 years ago women dressed a little more formal, they wore girdles, nylons, slips, dresses, nice coats (unlike now, when we wear sweatpants and a t-shirt) and in the middle of the night, when she went into labor (thank you castor oil), before she would agree to get in the car, she had to get dressed. Totally dressed, girdle and all. Dad had his mom-in-law, who lived a couple of houses away, run over to watch my sisters, then raced my mom off to the hospital. There is hardly any traffic these days during the middle of the night, so you can imagine there was NO traffic then. He raced through stop signs and lights, going as fast as he dared, and where the heck is a cop when you need one? Meanwhile, I was starting to be born. He got them/us to the hospital, and a nurse went for a wheelchair for my mom, but Mom said "The baby's coming, I can't sit down." They got a stretcher instead, and sure enough, I was hanging part way out...butt first. (I just have to do everything the hard way!!) By the time my dad got through registering my mom, I was born. He got to the delivery room and it was all over...he missed it...well, he would have missed it anyway, because back then, husbands weren't allowed in the delivery room. Too germy I guess! ha-ha! My dad did get one treat though, he got to take my mom's coat to the dry cleaners to try and get all the blood out, I guess he was a little embarassed trying to explain. We give my mom a hard time about that every year. Poor thing, maybe I won't bring it up this year. snicker!