Wait For It

My mother gave birth to seven children... four boys and three girls. Each of us weighed at least eight pounds.

I am the oldest born in 1947. My youngest brother was born in 1962.

When Mom started having babies it was common practice to put the mother to sleep during delivery. They said it was to spare the mother any pain. I think it was easier for the doctors. Mom was anesthetized for the first six of us.

Before she was awake Daddy had time to hold the baby and then call to let people know the baby was born. Then she would be sick. She did not tolerate anesthesia well.

Mom was thrilled when she learned that she would be allowed to stay awake for baby number7. She told the doctor that she was to be the first non-medical person to see the baby.

She joked and said that if she went into a coma for six months no one could see the baby before her.

Needless to say Mom got to see my little brother first. She got to hold him first. And all before Daddy even knew he was here.

Fathers were still not allowed in the delivery room. He had to wait. Mom was satisfied.

Mon's Family

My mother's family lived on their farm. 

Grandpa and my uncles worked the farm. They raised corn and wheat. They cut hay and baled it for later use. They raised a variety of animals including cows, pigs, donkeys, chickens, geese, and ducks to name a few. And of course there were always horses and a dog. 

Grandma and her daughters cooked and cleaned. They cared for the poultry. They gardened. Their homemade pickles were the best. They canned fruits and vegetables to have in the winter. They made jams and jellies as well as fruit butters. And watched after us.

My youngest uncle is only three years older than me. The twins were not much older. I had a lot of aunts and uncles. We spent a lot of time together so I knew them very well.

At the same time I knew very little about the larger family. Before he married Grandpa was a real honest-to-goodness cowboy. He lived on the range with cattle for months at a time.

Grandpa and Grandma used to play for barn dances. Grandma played the piano. Grandpa could play about five different stringed instruments.

Grandma lost her mother when she was young. That is when she took over household duties.

Still I know little about the extended family.

When I was little I sat so quietly and absorbed the stories the grown-ups told about family. I wish I knew more.

I Did It Again

 I was five years old. I wanted something from the top cabinet. Mom kept things up there that she did not want available to little hands.

Being bare footed was handy then. I used a kitchen chair to help me climb onto the counter. 

Even on the counter I could not reach easily what I wanted. I reached as far as I could. Could not reach. 

I stood on my toes and stretched to reach as far as I could. Almost but not quite there. 

I tried again. I reached as far as I could...  Oooops.. Something fell.

I looked down and immediately knew I was in big trouble. Mom had put a big box of thumbtacks up there. Now there were tacks all over the kitchen floor.

I quickly climbed down to collect and hide the evidence. As I jumped from the chair to the floor I screamed in pain. My bare feet were full of tacks.

Immediately I sat down to pull the tacks out of my feet. Yep. I sat right in the tacks. Now my bottom was full of tacks too.

By this time Mom was there. She picked up her crying little girl and began removing tacks. Fortunately there was no serious damage. 

My poor mother/ She raised seven of us. All of us did some pretty stupid things.

Doggie Days

I cannot remember my family not having a dog. When I was very little until I was moderately little all our dogs were named Suzy.  I have no idea why. But they were.

 Then I started my own family. My children loved dogs. Most of the time my daughter preferred them to humans. Still does.

Now I must explain that I am not a big lover of dogs or any pets. At the same time I do not want to see any animal mistreated. All living things deserve love.

Trixie was a dog we had on a farm we lived on. Trixie had a litter of puppies. Of course they were all named. The only name I remember is Ugly. 

One day my little brother and I in my very best I am innocent of any wrong-doing voice reported that 'somehow' all the puppies were down the toilet hole. (I was about 3 or 4 years old.) They all needed to be rescued and cleaned. Daddy was laughing so hard that he could not stop. It was up to Mom to save all the puppies.

My husband came home one day with a red-haired hound dog. Its name was Redneck. Redneck loved to run; in fact he would run on the sidewalk as cars drove by in the street. He was racing them.

Then my husband brought home a Doberman. She had been hit by a car breaking her leg in several places and shattering her pelvis. The vet said it looked like a broken jigsaw puzzle. We named her Sheba.

Sheba was healing nicely. Then she came into heat. We had somewhere to go that day. Redneck was known for his romantic nature. We could not leave them alone together or we would have a house full of puppies. We left Sheba in the house and locked Redneck in the back porch.

When we got home we were met at the front door by both dogs who had big smiles on their faces. A few weeks later we had cute little puppies

Sheba began to snap at my two youngest children so we had to find her a different home. I allowed the children to keep one of the puppies and the rest were also given new homes.

The puppy they kept was named Atilla. He looked like his mother but was a randy little guy like his father.

Shaggy followed my second son home... with a little coaxing and a rope around her neck. She was probably the filthiest animal I ever saw. We cleaned her up and I said she could stay until we found her owner. I knew we would never find an owner but it was worth a try.

Soon we found out that Shaggy was about to have puppies. As soon as the puppies were weaned Shaggy ran away. We found homes for all the puppies except the one we kept. He was named VaVoom after a cartoon character. VaVoom escaped from our yard and was hit by a truck in front of my whole cub scout pack. We gave him a nice funeral.

I was at a friend's house and saw a cute little puppy tied up in the neighbor's front yard. When I overheard the mother tell the children she was going to take it to the dog pound I offered to take the puppy. I gave her to my son for his birthday. He named her Tillie.

She reminded me of a Southern Belle with her own ideas of proper. She would take the money my son kept on the shelf by his bed and roll in it. But she knew a twenty dollar bill meant pizza was coming. She would not eat any people food so she just liked to bark at the delivery person.

As I said she would not eat people food even if we tried to give it to her. She did like cherry cough drops. We were amused when she stole them and ate them.

One evening we had ordered fast food from Wendy's. Wendy's is known for their Frostys. A Frosty is a sort of shake. We were sitting in the living room talking and I set my Frosty on the floor. My children were all looking at each other and chuckling.

When I reached down for my Frosty I got a handful of dog. Tillie was drinking my Frosty! 

My oldest son was taking care of his father who was dying. After his father's funeral my son would be by himself in a strange place until I could get ready to move here. He wanted a dog for company.

Since he knew no one he had no idea where to begin a search. I told him to check with the veterinarian in the next town. Often they have listings of dogs people can no longer keep. That is where he found Isabella.

She had been abandoned as a puppy and possibly mistreated too. When we went to meet her the woman who was caring for her was so nice. The dog liked the children.

The woman told us her husband did not like the dog so she lived outside. The garage door was open so she could duck out to the weather a bit. The grass in the yard was taller than Bella So we knew the children did not play with her there. I had the feeling that the husband was not kind to her.

It took a long time for Bella to like being cared for by a man. She deeply resented my son for several months. In time though she even wanted to sit in his lap which was not easy. She was a big dog.

After Bella died my son did not want another dog right away. When he finally felt ready he began to search on-line. 

One night he shouted, "I found my dog!" 

He immediately contacted the rescue home. He needed references and the money to adopt her. Once he was proven acceptable, we went and picked her up. They had named her Bene.

They said her mother and all her pups had been found in a ditch in freezing weather. One of the pups had drowned and was frozen in the puddle. The mother and all the puppies needed homes. 

Apparently Bene was a problem child so they first brought a sister in. She was a nice puppy. My son told them he wanted his dog. So we took Bene home with us. My son renamed he as Delilah Bene.

She is now four years old, You have never seen a happier dog. And she is still a problem child.

Birthday Parties

At the time my family consisted of five children and two parents. I believe that is a total of seven. Five of us celebrated birthdays within a two-week period. 

Mom decided that we should each have a birthday party at least once in our lives. Having five children meant five parties to plan. She sensibly chose one year for the boys and another year for the girls.

The first year was my brothers. They were the only two not born in the two weeks. The end of October and beginning of November meant that for eight days each year they were the same age. Irish twins. I actually just found out that the boys and I are Irish triplets.

One brother had a party in which there were two teams. Each team was given a list of items thar could be found around town. The team who collected the most items in the allotted time would win. I no longer remember what the prize was. 

Then there was cake and ice cream for all.

Two elaborate parties within eight days... Mom was exhausted.

The following year was for the girls and our three year old brother. 

My baby brother was easier. Toddlers are only interested in cake and ice cream.

My party was a treasure hunt. Mom had spent the previous day hiding clues all over town. Each clue was a riddle that told us where to find the next clue.

The final clue took us to the park where cake and ice cream was waiting for us.

As you can see Mom did not do things halfway. The first year she made spectacular parties for two boys in one week. The second year she had three parties in a week and a half. 

She was exhausted. She had not planned well. So many parties so close together. She said she would never do it again. We loved them.

Tooth Fairy

Who knew? 

As the oldest of seven children I lost my baby teeth first. The first one was loose for a long time. I rather enjoyed wiggling it with my tongue. Eventually it fell out. I tossed it in the trash.

The next one came out when I was eating a popcorn ball. I did not notice until much later. You know what that means. I had also swallowed my tooth.

Another tooth had come out without fanfare. I tossed it too.

Then my brother lost his first tooth. 

He came home from school with his tooth in his pocket. He asked Mom if he put the tooth under his pillow would the Tooth Fairy come. 

My ears perked up and my eyes opened wide. I had never heard of this Tooth Fairy. If my brother was right placing his tooth under his pillow would bring the Tooth Fairy. She would exchange the tooth for money. Who knew?

The next morning my brother triumphantly showed us the nickel left by the Tooth Fairy. It worked!

In the meantime I had lost three perfectly good teeth and had nothing to show for it. I WAS ROBBED!

My Heart

In 1992 Hurricane Andrew ravaged Florida. My brother one year younger than me lived in Lauderdale at the time.

He had not felt well that day and left work early. By the time he got home his chest hurt. He felt like he should go to the hospital. With the bad weather he decided to wait.

My brother knew that men in my family tended to have heart attacks. Well my brother was no exception. 

His chest pains were becoming unbearable. He called for medical assistance.

I do not know how medical personnel made it through the hurricane to reach my brother but they did. He was unconscious and they did not take any of his personal items with him.

When he awoke he could not remember any phone numbers or contact names. After several days he finally remembered where he worked and the number there.

My sister also lived in Florida and had been trying to contact my brother for several days. She finally called his job.

She explained that she was his sister and was worried about him because of the hurricane. They told her Oh yeah. He had a heart attack and they told her what hospital he was in.

Naturally my sister was furious. She told them that they should have looked at his file. If they had they would have known to call her as soon as they were notified.

Now I am pretty good at giving someone a good dressing down. My sister makes me look like a timid bunny. (We learned from our mother.)

It is also like my brother to want to be left alone. My mother and I each offered to take care of him when he got home. He wanted none of that. 

Mon always said he was a most unsatisfying baby. He did not like being held.

He was fine for years after all that. He moved with his job to New York. That is where he had another heart attack. He died as he lived... alone.