I unearthed a document recently that is as old as I am (238 years). I must say, it answered a lot of questions that had been simmering at the back of my mind my whole life. One, was I really left on my parents’ doorstep, wrapped in a potato sack, like my brother Bob always said I was? Two, why did we always have a can of Pet milk on the table? And three, why did Mom breastfeed me instead of using a bottle?
- Exhibit one: Mom, me, Pet milk.
- Exhibit two: Simple instructions for making baby’s bottle, issued by the hospital at my birth.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Caroline 07.24.08 at 9:28 pm
I think you Mother was drinking lots of Pet Milk during the pregnancy…10 lbs 5 1/2 oz!!! Good lord… In those days I don’t think the epidural was invented. Your Mother was a good woman…
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Kathi D 07.24.08 at 10:04 pm
I asked Mom why I was such a big baby, compared to, say, brother Bob who was a normal 7 lbs. or so and she said, “We could afford better food when I was pregnant with you.”
I was born with dimpled elbows and chubby cheeks. As a friend says, “Our layettes were size 12.”
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dana wyzard 07.25.08 at 7:00 am
I just visited Di and saw where you sent her a package. Just where the hell do you get off, sending something to HER and not ME!! Do you want my address?? huh??? HUH????
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Melissa 07.25.08 at 7:14 am
So I see there that the date is 12/28. Does that mean you’re a Christmas eve baby? Cuz us holiday babies gotta stick together and since I’m a New Years baby it seems reasonable of me to ask.
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Wendy 07.25.08 at 8:20 am
What on earth is ’special baby sugar’? It’s amazing that babies from that generation didn’t all end up with diabetes.
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Diana 07.25.08 at 8:57 am
That is making me laugh! “Babies never need to be weened from Pet Milk”. So are you still drinking it?
I can’t believe your Mother gave birth to a 10+ pound baby! YIKES! That hurts just thinking of it:)
YES! A package from Kathi! Can’t wait and yes I do have somebody at home to collect my mail-they are called “teenage kids”.
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Jen Duncan 07.25.08 at 9:11 am
Baby sugar?! Yegods. Sometimes it amazes me that our mothers didn’t accidentally kill us. Whenever I got burned my mom would put butter on it. ?? Did I look like toast or something?
And gee–I wonder if possibly the fine folks at Pet milk wrote these feeding instructions. hmmm…
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Kathi D 07.25.08 at 11:09 am
Dana. Go to your room and think about what you have done.
Melissa, yes, it’s true, I was born one day before the Sweet Baby Jesus (in approximately the same year).
Wendy, surely you don’t mean to imply that your babies never tasted Special Baby Sugar?
Diana, I drink my can of Pet Milk every morning, after sweetening it with my Special Baby Jesus Sugar. And now you have outed me, that I am about 3 years behind on sending your Prize that May or May Not Suck. I have to say, you are brave to have teenage kids at home. I remember coming home from a trip with my parents once when the teenagers were home alone, and let’s just say, teenagers don’t clean up the scene of a crime quite as well as they think they do. Also, I still have many of the dimples I was born with. And a few extra.
Jen, you are so suspicious. I’m sure the Fine Folks at Pet Milk have only our best interests in mind. And yes, you might have been toast. You have that toasty goodness written all over you.
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Toi 07.25.08 at 4:02 pm
I’m sorry, but I don’t know what your post fully said. Once I saw that birth weight I kind of went into a fog. Holy God! 10lbs 5oz! I do see that you lost a little weight there before going home. Were they not using the good PET milk?
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bob 07.25.08 at 4:46 pm
I remember when mom was pregnant. she would be eating a big meal and I would plead for some crumbs, but it was always “nooooo, I’m going to have a cute little baby girl, so you just go through the neighbors garbage again if you’re hungry.”
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Kathi D 07.25.08 at 6:11 pm
Toi, I think they forgot where I was. You notice I didn’t even have a name yet at 4 days old.
Bob! Aha! So you ADMIT that Mom was pregnant with me, at last! I remember once Mrs. Tucker claimed she saw you sharing a stick of butter with Ginger, taking turns licking it. So I guess you did have to share your food with the dog. Does it mean anything to you that my first word was “Bobby!”? It’s written right there in my baby book.
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Kitt 07.25.08 at 10:51 pm
Hey, I’m glad you commented on my “fertile eggs” post, because it brought me here to your NEW blog. I thought you’d been awfully quiet, but my reader never showed any new posts. Star Jones was the last one.
Geez, now I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
Sorry about the roosters.
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Meltrier 07.26.08 at 9:16 pm
Boiling everything for 10 minutes? Scalding the milk can before opening? Jeez, I used to make Henry’s formula from warm tap water and a rinsed out bottle. Poor child! Bad mom!
Though the ice pick reference concerns me . . .
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bob 07.27.08 at 8:27 am
meltrier: this was in phoenix, blocks of ice were popular, so, ice picks.
(also, it was the late 1800’s, electricity was scarce, ice boxes were common)
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Meltrier 07.28.08 at 7:21 am
And you’re her older brother, right?
Thanks for the explanation!
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