Blog Schedule

I post on Monday with an occasional random blog thrown in for good measure. I do my best to answer all comments via email and visit around on the days I post.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Guess Who?

Yup, that’s me, just hours after I was born. I look confused and disoriented. “What the hay is going on?”

It’s my birthday today.

Actually it’s Mom’s birth day, after all she did most of the work. She always told Erva and me she remembered the days we were born as clearly as if the events happened yesterday.

My birthday story is this. Mom was prepared to have me. She’d already had one baby so she knew what to expect. When Erva was born all the people attending Mom in the delivery room were women. It was a very calm experience. When I was born all the people attending Mom in the delivery room were…men! Mom said there was a completely different attitude about how to get things done. Erva was born pretty much drug free. When it was my time to arrive, first thing Mom knew they’d given her a spinal. She said she felt like a fish flopping around on a table. Those men would tell her to push, but she couldn’t feel anything. “How could I push when I was basically paralyzed from the waist down?” she said. So, because she couldn’t push they had to use…yup…forceps. I am a forceps baby. So out I come and the doctor hands me over to the male nurse and he says, “Here’s a cute one.” And before Mom gets to see or hold me I’m handed around to all the men and goo-gooed over. If all of that wasn’t bad enough, Mom was given shots to stop the flow of milk so she couldn’t breast-feed me, something she wanted and intended to do, something that she was able to do for Erva.

Apparently I didn’t like baby bottles. By the time I was old enough to hold them I would drink what I wanted and then throw the offending object out of the crib. Now remember all baby bottles were glass back then. It seems I managed to break quite a few. Mom decided to teach me drink out of a glass to see if I liked that any better. I did. So I learned to drink out of a glass when I was pretty young.

And that’s it, the story of my birth.

Tomorrow I’m going home to the islands. I’ll be gone for two months. I don’t know when or if I’ll get the opportunity to blog anything. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read my meanderings. If I don’t “see” you off and on in the next two months, I’ll definitely, “see you in September.”

6 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday! See you tomorrow for the "rest" of the celebration! And, oh, I think we can set you up to blog from time to time!

    Love,
    Erva

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  2. Happy Birthday Bish! I hope you had a wonderful day! We'll miss you when you're away!

    Christy

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  3. Happy Birthday! (a little belated) - that is so cool that you grew up on the islands. What a great setting for a children's story...

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  4. Hello to Bish Denham,
    I read your words on your dad and had to get in touch! I have been doing the family tree for about 25 years and my uncle has recently told me that one of my grandfathers uncles emigrated to Texas and owned/worked in a gas station - I know its a long shot, but worth the ask, did your dads father come from England?
    Your father's story is not disimular to my grandfathers, he also shared the traits of words unspoken. His father, a twin also left his wife with children and was last heard of in Australia.
    anyway, I'd love to here from you if you would!
    Janice Denham. Essex UK.

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  5. Happy belated birthday. It's funny how men and women approach things completely differently, isn't it? Have a great trip--hopefully you'll have some good stories and photos to share when you get back!

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  6. Hi Janice,
    Tried to find a blog or email to answer you. Hope you come visit mine again and read this response.

    My Denhams have been in the U.S. no less than 250 years. We know that a William Denham Sr. with his wife (we don't have her name) and 4children, William Jr., Obed, John and Abigail, left England sometime in the mid-1700s. We know that William Sr. and his wife died on the voyage across the Atlantic. We know that we are decended from his oldest son, William Jr. who would have been born in England. We don't know the birthdates or birth places of either William or where the family came or sailed from in England. We know they left England for the sake of religious freedom. We know the children settled in New Jersey.

    At this point we are now producing the 11th generation in the U.S.

    If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. I suspect most Denhams are related in some way. If you don't have it I have some interesting information about the Denham name that is probably accurate.

    Bish

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