My Baby Years

Write? No way!! I do not write, I have never written and never intended to write. But my daughter says write, so…here goes.

My earliest memories of my life are only memories of what my mother told me. I was born at home with no doctor present. My Great Aunt was the mid-wife in attendance as was customary with poor people of that time. 

Since I was the last of ten children, my mother was not too enthused with another crying mouth to feed. I remember sitting in my Dad’s lap as a child I have no memory of ever being in my mother’s lap or arms. She probably never had time for anything like that. The picture below is Mom, Dad, Grandpa and my four oldest siblings. There were fewer pictures taken as more children were born into the family. No pictures were taken of me as a baby. 

Only three of my siblings still lived at home, my next oldest sister and two brothers.  I don’t have any memories of playing with my brothers or sisters. They were probably all too old and busy to play with their baby sister. I’m sure my sister did take care of me and play with me some. 

I do remember having a rope swing on a tree in our back yard. I don’t remember having toys. I suppose I played with sticks from the yard.  As I got older I might have fashioned a doll out of something. My first memory of having or getting a toy came when I was around four years old. My older brother, the seventh of the ten, had gone to CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp). It was a government run program similar to the WPA. It put poor people to work. He used a little of his pay check to buy me a Christmas present, probably my first. It might have cost him a whole fifteen cents, but that was a lot back then. It was a small doll, about 3 or 4 inches tall. I remember it didn’t have clothes so I wrapped it in a little scrap of cloth and called it my baby.