IN THE BEGINNING

In 1946, Thanksgiving fell on November 28. It was also the day I was born. My mother told me once that she didn't have room for both me and the turkey, so she had to have me. But, since she was in the hospital birthing me, she missed Thanksgiving dinner anyway.

The following story of the circumstances of my birth are as they were told to me by my mother. Time may have dulled my exact memory of the story and since she is no longer here to verify the details, everyone will just have to go with it.

Apparently, my mother's doctor was anxious to deliver me because he didn't want to miss the Army-Navy football game which I guess was sometime around her due date. He decided to induce labor. I don't know the exact details of that process back then. But Mother said labor was started, but not very productive. She walked the halls of the hospital for quite awhile hoping things would move along. Her water broke (either naturally or by the doctor, I don't know which), but labor eventually stopped and even though I was in the breech position, she was sent home. Now in this day, that would never have happened. A C-Section would have been done. I find it hard to believe that she was sent home in the condition that she was, but my mother always said that was the case.

Almost two weeks later, Thanksgiving morning, she went into labor again. I was still breech, but the delivery went OK and my mother never said there were any complications. I was the 5th child and 3rd daughter born to my mother, Editha "Dixie" Reid Christensen, and my father, Morley Burt Christensen.

Update: I recently rediscovered a letter written to me by my mother. In it, she writes about the details of my birth.  It was pretty much as I have told it.