HELLO, MY BABY

I became a daddy in 1956. Read all about it. 02/292016

HELLO, MY BABY!

While driving home from an office cocktail party on a rainy day in late December 1955, Angie spotted a virtually empty Christmas tree lot.

 “Let’s stop and get one.”

The operator gave us the last one he had: FREE. He wanted to go home. The man tied it atop our Studebaker, and I managed to drag it into the apartment. Angie fell asleep on the couch watching me set it up. Unfortunately, it did not produce much joy.

A few days before Christmas, Angie suffered a miscarriage. Dr. Joseph Waddell made an urgent house call and confirmed the obvious. He assured us that first pregnancies often end this way, and expressed confidence we would have children in the future. At the time, his assurance did not fill us with optimism. 

Rain fell almost every day in San Mateo that winter causing the worst localized flooding in the city’s history. One day a house atop the hill near our apartment came off its foundation and slid down a ravine. That event, coupled with the gloomy weather, made Angie very despondent. Every day she longed to return to New York.

The State of California had rejected Angie’s claim for unemployment insurance as she had resigned her position voluntarily. This added to her malaise. Anxious to return to the workforce, in January she found a job in nearby Belmont with the Lenkurt Electric Company. Despite her previous experience as an Executive Secretary, she could not command as much pay as she had been earning in Manhattan prior to our marriage.

As Dr. Waddell had predicted, Angie became pregnant soon again and had to quit her job to await our first child, a girl, born November 30, 1956, at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City. Could life be sweeter? 

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