Memories of Charlton County - by Gibson and Mays Back to Table of Contents 40. WHEN BABIES WERE BORN (Pp 81-82) When babies were born the families
rejoiced when the mother and child were all right, for many times women died at childbirth. My own mother died three days after the birth of my sister, Mattie and my grandmother died right after Papa was born. The first child that my wife, Ruth, and I had was a little girl who died when only one day old. A doctor didn't tend to Ruth at that time but a granny or midwife did. We lived in a house that hadn't been ceiled overhead and it was a very cold day, The granny took the
baby to the fireplace soon after it was born and bathed it there. I thought then that it was too cold to do that. The baby died of pneumonia the next day and we always thought that was the reason. When my sister, Ena, was about to be born Papa sent me very early one morning over to Uncle Jesse Grooms' house to get Aunt Viney. As she was leaving the house in a hurry to get to Mama, Ralph, her youngest boy, sent Ena her first gift. He handed Aunt Viney an apple and said
"Here, take this present to the baby." Aunt Viney, Uncle Jesse and I walked back to my house and Aunt Viney hurried right along while Uncle Jesse and I strolled together behind her. Uncle Jesse was smoking a pipe and as we got to a little crossroad he dropped it in a bunch of palmettos right in the corner. He told me "I hope I don't forget where I put this pipe, but if I do, you won't!" He didn't want to go in the house with it because the women didn't
like the small of it. Ena was the cutest thing when she was little. Emory Dean was already a member of our family as my sister, Lillie, had married him. There was a song we learned at church called "My Redeemer." We all knew it and must have liked it for we hummed it around the house. Some of the words were "I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side by the prints of the nails in His hands. My Redeemer! My Redeemer!" Ena
was a little bitty toddler at that time and had her own way of singing the last line. She said "Emory Deaner! Emory Deaner!" Before World War I, when I was living in Hopkins, on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp, a lady living there knew her baby was going to be born soon so the family sent for the doctor. The one that took care of Hebard Cypress Company employees had a Ford car with railroad wheels on it and when he needed to tend to those that were sick at
Hopkins or those on Billy's Island, he would put the car on the railroad tracks at the Hebardville store and he'd go down those rails aflying. When the doctor got to Hopkins to tend to the lady that was in labor he opened the door, took his hat off and threw it right in her face! In a few minutes her baby was born. As he was leaving after the baby and mother were tended to, he said "Now lady, I ought to explain why I threw my hat in your face. If I hadn't adone that and
made you mad your baby wouldn't have been born till tomorrow!' She replied "Well, in that case, next time I have a baby, don't forget to bring your hat!" | 
