Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

Kathleen Continued, The First Grandchild
 
The next year, my parent’s first grandchild was born. Since I was almost ten and Betty almost eight, they didn’t know how we would feel about Kat having a baby. Betty and I had been Kathleen’s babies and now she was having one of her own. Before they could tell us, Lon’s sister Alice told me at school. I went home and said, “that’s not true is it?” 
 
Anyway, Kathleen would have her babies like my mother did….at home. The doctor would go to their house in the country to assist her. My mother would also go, as would Betty and I. We would help with the housework or whatever needed done. I went into the hen house to gather eggs. I didn’t know that chickens could have lice and shot out of the door as soon as I realized that I was covered with them. The good news is that they didn’t stay on me. It was interesting too because my sister’s husband Lon trapped animals and skinned them to sell. One was stretched inside out on a board. I stared at it because the back side of its eyes were like nothing I had ever seen before. I don’t know what kind of animal it was but it was fairly large. I know that Lon later trapped mink.
 
I think we stayed there for two or three days, maybe even a week. Betty and I slept on their dining room floor on a quilt. I was tall and thin so sleeping on the hard floor on a quilt caused my whole body to get sore and hurt.
 
And I was bored. I can’t speak for Betty but lying there on the floor, I happened to spy a bookcase that belonged to Lon and his brothers. It was full of western novels, many by Zane Grey. Out of boredom and desperation, I decided to try reading one. It was different than anything I had ever read before and I was hooked. I had found a way to entertain myself while Kathleen walked the floor in an adjacent bedroom waiting for the baby to be born.
 
Louise Rigsby was born on August 28, 1948 and she was beautiful! She had big brown eyes and a head full of black hair. We would see a lot of her over the coming weeks.
 
 ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020
Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck