July 8, 1969

Happy birthday to my older daughter, Janet.  Forty-nine today.

Forty-nine years ago, I woke up at the usual time to get ready for work, noticed my water had broken and said to myself, “Instead of going to work today, I think I’ll have a baby.”

Baby was supposed to be born during the first moon walk, July 20, 1969, but you know how babies are.

Both Larry, my husband, and I worked in downtown Los Angeles, just a few blocks apart from each other.  We often joked, “Wouldn’t it be funny if I went into labor during rush hour?”  Ha, ha, ha.

There we were, stuck in traffic on the 10 Freeway during rush hour.  Yes, a terrible commute even in 1969.  It was only ten miles from our house in Rosemead to downtown, but it usually took over an hour in stop and go traffic.

Despite all that, I did reach the Hollywood/Sunset Kaiser Hospital in time.  From start to finish at approximately 11:30, when Janet presented herself to the world, was about five hours.

I was certain I was going to have a boy and had several boy names picked out, but no girl names.

The doctor said, “It’s a girl,” and I actually said to him, “Are you sure?”

Should have seen the look on his face.  “YES, I’m sure.”  I guess he was upset I had questioned his doctorhood.

Wow, a girl!  How could I have ever imagined I wanted a boy?

She was soon screaming at the top of her lungs, and the nurses brought her into my room because she was “waking up all the other babies in the nursery.”

My mother called to see how I was and to ask what not-yet-named Janet looked like.

I told Mom she was beautiful, but she did kind of resemble the comic, Buddy Hackett.

Thank goodness she outgrew Buddy’s looks, but she’s just as funny as he was – albeit cleaner…most of the time.

She has a great gift for mimicry – of family members and/or obscure characters that you wouldn’t know, verbatim recall of lines in a thousand movies and most songs, and a deep and abiding sarcastic take on life.

Hmmm…wonder where she gets that?

 

The End