Random Recollections IV

09/18/08
I was born on January 7, 1929 while a blizzard continued to rage outside the Naeve Hospital in Albert Lea, MN. I have been told that when my mother thought it was time to head for the hospital, she and my dad got in the car and started down the long driveway from the house to the main road one-half mile away. They had made it a little way down the drive but they were soon stuck in a large snowdrift. As good neighbors do, Henry Peterson, who lived up the hill from our house, was out there with a team of horses to pull the car through the drifts and down to the road into town. My parents were able to drive the rest of the way so I could be born in the hospital instead of in the car! The Evening Tribune published on January 7, 1929 ran its biggest headline as follows: “Weather Grips Entire Northwest. Mercury Hits New Levels in all Sections. Little Immediate Relief From Cold Wave. Forecast - Drifted Roads Block Traffic in Some Parts."

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So my mother and I were both born in blizzards! No wonder we're so cool!

They told me my mother was born in the Navy Hospital and I wondered why there was such a thing in Albert Lea, MN. There are many lakes and ponds in the area, but no need for a navy facility. Now I understand: it was the Naeve Hospital.