A Watermelon Birth
Mom liked to tell me the story of the day I was born and the importance of
watermelon. Since Dad was off from work on that holiday, they went with friends to a park for a picnic. Now back then all summer picnics included watermelon, at least in South Arkansas where so many are grown! Of course Mom ate some watermelon and she (not the doctor) says that all that watermelon in her stomach put pressure on her womb and caused the birth to happen that day. Until she died she always said “Charles, that’s why you were born on the 4th of July!” Well . . . Uhh . . . maybe. 🙂
“Louise, You Gave Birth to a Firecracker”
Mom’s uncle, my grand uncle, was the doctor, Walter J. Hunt, for the small farming town of Warren, Arkansas in 1940 and the one to deliver me in his little small hospital there. Mom would sometimes shyly tell the story that when I was born, Uncle Doc said, “Congratulations Louise! You just gave birth to a firecracker! See! It even has a fuse!” That was his funny way of telling her she gave birth to a boy.