Snow Shoveling

Ah...Winter time in Ohio. Yes, good ol' snow. I don't think Sheila and I were really shoveling much snow on the day, more so than posing for pictures. I remember walking up and down the street asking people if we could shovel their drives for a bit of coin. No takers...and one weird guy wrapped up in his bedspread wondering what the hell we wanted.

We also didn't do much in the snow aside from going to school and letting other people drive us around in it. It was fun to watch the cars slide around sideways. What's the big deal? Snow with friends? Lots of fun! For parents scraping and heating up their cars - not so much.

I walked a few miles a day in snow or shine to school. I did that because I hated riding the bus. It also gave me time to think about stuff and get myself ready for the day. Sometimes I'd walk with friends, but mostly it was by myself. Not everyone thought it was a good idea. My dad especially thought I didn't bundle up nearly enough. Truth be told, if you walk a couple of miles to school, you're pretty warmed up by the time you get there. He wouldn't hear of it. He wanted heavier jackets and scarves and all that. Of course I didn't. I was perfectly fine. I wore my gloves and my hat and a jacket and that was all I needed. The only time it was a concern was when it was dark out - night out - in the early morning with snow falling and ice on the ground. Then you could seriously bust your butt. I never hurt myself doing it, though I do remember my dad threatening to show me real pictures of what happens to folks with frost bite!! I was like, I'm not out in it that long...and I'm like walking the entire time...and I'd hope one of the passing folk or cars or buses would stop and help if I was down that hard somewhere along the route. Of course he meant well, and what else are you going to do when your kid stops riding the bus that comes by right out side the door and walks four miles up and back to school a day.

Snow was also cool downtown. There was nothing like the big city downtown in Dayton. Everything there was huge with tons of cars and tons of people and snow made getting there fairly exciting. We never had an accident but there was a fairly scary time of driving in an ice storm that was covering the car faster than the wipers could get it off and the time when we literally could not drive up the icy hill of the drive way to the garage.

I can say we were in a blizzard. What did that mean to me? Almost two weeks off from school!!! Woo Hoo!!! For all those that had to drive in it...I'm sure that was some dangerous stuff. Nothing better though than listening to WING & Kirkie in the morning - Steve Kirk that is - telling us what schools were closed. It was either total elation, YES! YES!, or a total let down...all those schools closed and not us? With all the hills and small mountains in Ohio, you could be socked in here and over in the Miami valley near Cincinnati could be all clear.

At school, the cold meant recess huddling up in these huge concrete pipes strewn across the playground. They were your own personal forts and always good for much mischief. If it was too bad out, there would be recess in the classroom. All those kids playing records, dancing and stuff...it was really different from the Florida Schools. We were smarter coming into those schools, and naturally we were dumber when we came back, but I would say it was almost a toss up.

Ah snow. Everyone should have a chance to play in it at least once.

Sheila Lynne Presley Whiting

Sheila New Born At The Hospital

Sheila Lynne Presley Whiting

Sheila, my middle daughter, had an exciting beginning. She born in Alamogordo, New Mexico four months early. I was five months along and she decided she wanted to be born and she wasn't waiting any longer. I was in the hosptial four or five times before she actually wanted to be born.

The sack she was living in inside me had torn away in some places and was bleeding. All the little blood vessels were exposed. The doctor tried very hard to keep me carrying her as long as possible. She was born in a military hospital at Holloman Air Force Base on the edge of the White Sands Missile Range. She was blessed because it was the regional hospital that cared for premature babies. The best of the best was there for her. She wasn't expected to live but she did.

When she was born, she came out crying loud and she cried a lot. Her Daddy, Eddie, could hear her crying out in the hallway. The doctor said, "Listen to that baby scream. Good for her, she'll make it." That crying got her lungs all filled up with air and made her stronger. She only drank a nipple full of milk at a time and that took forty-five minutes. Her weight at birth was three pounds and she went down to a pound and a half. Slowly her weight came back up to five pounds over four months.

During the last two months that she was in the hospital, the doctor discovered she had a hole in the heart and said she may have to have open heart surgery when she was about two to correct it. We were asked to take her to a heart specialist in El Paso, Texas the day she was discharged from the hospital to get their opinion on her heart. We took her straight to the specialist that day with her records. The three doctors said they didn't want to see the records first, they wanted to test her each by themselves and then they would look at the records. I was just suppose to keep her from crying. Try that with a baby you just got out of the hospital and have never held before, but we got through the exams.

Then the three doctors came out and said, "What is this baby suppose to have wrong? We didn't find anything wrong." Then they read the records and said the hole in her heart had healed up while she was in the hospital those 4 months. She did not have to have heart surgery and probably she would never have any trouble with her heart. Eddie and I were so happy. We could hardly believe our ears. We took her home and were so thankful.

One of the hardest things at home was she was never held those 4 months and there was no bonding to human hands. Back then they kept the babies in isolation and only put in their hands to feed her. Now the babies are held to be fed. Because of this, Sheila would not let us hold her for a year. She screamed and cried every time we tried to feed her. So we had to lay her on the sofa or bed and prop up her bottle on a pillow to feed her. Slowly she got over that and now is so loving and wants hugs all the time. She hasn't ever developed heart trouble. But does have very bad allergies to medications and pain pills.

In her first year, her most trouble was with getting pneumonia . We rushed her after hours to the base emergency room because she could hardly breathe. The doctor went into the pharmacy and mixed a drug that a premature baby could take and spoon fed it to her to help her breathe.
As the weeks went by she gained weight and did well, and we grew closer and closer every day. She didn't get her hair until she was 2 years old.

During her hospital stay, her skin was so thin and no fat. When she pressed her foot or hand against the glass, we could see her tiny bones just like a x-ray machine. She was so tiny that all but her legs and arms could fit in the palm of your hand.

Baby Sheila

Sheila Four Months