BABY PAPA

A tiny little baby boy, the third child,  arrived to the Ames home somewhat unexpectedly.

A birth announcement tells us that he weighed 6 lbs and 8 ozs.

He makes a guest appearance here today to share a few memories.

"When my father was studying medicine, he arranged for one of his professors to deliver me at home.  When the time came the doctor stopped in to check on my mom.  He told her that I wouldn't be coming for about a week.

"When he walked out the door my mother went to stand over the heater.  She says he no sooner went out than my father came in.  When my father came so did I.  Mom says she barely had time to make it to the couch.  Having almost been born over the heater, my mother used to tell me that I was a little hot head.

 "I was born with a club foot (one of my feet was turned around the wrong way).  The doctor said that when I became a teenager they would put a brace on me and that I would always walk with a limp.  Mom told Dad 'Well your a doctor, you fix it.'  He did.  25 years later I placed 5th in the Utah Amateur Ballroom Dance Competition. (There were 200 couples competing.)  That summer I went to a dance with my mother.  She was thrilled.

"One day at church,when I was very young, all the young women were gathered around me, trying to make me smile.  I wouldn't, no  matter what they did.  My mother walked into the room.  Seeing her I smiled, then immediately stopped smiling.   The girls begged mom to get me to smile again.  She told them that she wouldn't do that to me and left them to keep trying.  I didn't, but I'm sure it was as much fun for me as it was for them.

"I have been told that I wasn't much bigger than D.D.'s doll.  Since she was 8 when I was born she probably remembers that better than I do.  Here is a picture of me when I was a little older.  I think that this may be her doll."

There you have some history from Papa himself.

I have heard that Papa was a 'blue baby' when he was born, so his mother and several neighbors and kind friends watched him around the clock and massaged him constantly to keep him breathing.

He thinks his 'bad' foot was his left - because he sat on it in school.  He says the teachers that were interested in education left the foot issue alone and that the teachers that were interested in authority always were constantly at him to put it on the floor and not sit on it.

Papa has told me that because of his foot that his mother recognized his steps and always knew when it was him coming. The children's room was upstairs so if he ever walked across the room she knew if it was him that was out of bed.  He felt that was very unfair - she didn't know, if it were his brothers, which one was up.