Happy Birthday IT Guy!

Late on March 31, 1964 my Mom went into labor with her second child. At the time we lived in a small town. One where everyone knows everybody. And the local doctor has delivered just about everyone in town and accepts chickens for payment (well maybe not really but you get the idea).

I was first born. We lived in the suburbs at the time and I was born in a big fancy teaching hospital. All the latest and greatest equipment. My Mom went into labor, they knocked her out and when she woke up they handed her a baby. Ta Da! Just like that.

So my Mom is taken into a labor room in this tiny little town hospital. As was customary at the time, my poor Dad was banished to the waiting room. A nurse turns to my Mom and sweetly says, "This is your second, so you know what to do honey." and walks out the door. The way my father tells it; not to long after that he hears my mother yell at the nurse that she is a sadistic bitch. That prompts my father to go see what's happening, after all there wasn't this much fuss the first time around. They don't want to let him in but he isn't going to be denied. He arrives just in time for the doctor to say to the nurse, "give her more gas, there's another one."

That very simple statement was the first inkling they had that my parents were about to be proud parents of two babies, not just one, as they had anticipated. Ten minutes after IT Guy was born, baby number two made his way into the world. Both boys were healthy 8 pounders. It was the talk of the town!

Meanwhile, the clock had ticked past midnight and this surprise actually came early in the morning on April 1st. After day break my Dad, a well known practical joker, called his family who lives in another state to tell them how they are proud parents of two healthy baby boys.

My fathers' brother answers the phone. When he is told how his sister in law just gave birth to twins he becomes annoyed with his forever joking brother, tells him that isn't something he should joke about and slams the phone down. After my parents stop laughing they call them back to assure them that this isn't an April Fool joke and they really do have two new nephews. My father and his brother got many a laugh over the years repeating this story.

Happy Birthday IT Guy! Really, it's not April Fool's........