100 YEARS AGO - Ralph Folkert Vander Meulen is born

I simply cannot believe I can't get my life arranged to work more on this project!  Our current virus situation means we all have to stay home and safe.  I am delighted to have time to unclutter my life, lower that huge stack of Action Items that I have collected.  One of those things is to work more on this project and today, the 100th anniversary of my father's birth, is a good place to start.  I have just posted on my Facebook Page the entry from 3/22/20, which I post here ...  sooner or later, perhaps I will at least get that year transcribed.  I am going to try to make it a goal for this awful time in our lives, maybe bring some pleasure to some of my family.  So here goes!

100 years ago today, it was not snowing like it is at my house right now! W=F 3-22-20 Monday
"About 12 o'clock midnight Naomi [grandmother] called me awake. She ...felt strange pains in her lower body. I got up and dressed and called mother [great grandmother Salmon] who got over just before or about 1 o'clock. I recognized her state as that of child labor and realized that we were soon to have a child. N. dressed and I called the Quick Service Taxi Co. of Oak Park [Chicago suburb] & they arrived in about 1/2 hour. We left and arrived at the West Suburban Hospital in about 25 minutes at about 3:20AM. The events that followed up until just after the birth of the child will remain in memory only. Naomi gve birth to a son at 7:30AM whom we have named Ralph Folkert. [Folkert is Dutch for Frank and is an OLD family name, going back many generations, Ralph for grandmother's brother who died as an infant] She was taken to a 5 bed ward on the 5th floor due to a lack of empty rooms. Mother and I went with her to the hospital. When N. was well taken care of we departed for home in the late AM. I slept about 1 hr. last night and 3 more during the day. I mailed a telegram to [his own] Mother [in Portland, OR] Did not work today. I am very happy first because N. is safe and then because of Ralph. Dad [great grandfather Salmon] and I went to see N in evening. Had supper at Mother's." Grandma was moved to a private room the next day and stayed in hospital for 11 days!  

What a difference 100 years makes! On oh so many fronts!
Here is what that baby turned out to look like 17 years later when he graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1937.