Bohemia Village Voice

By Diane Haberstroh writing from Bohemia, New York (Aug 2010)

Birth of a Baby

I found this pamphlet, “Birth of a Baby – after enemy attack if no doctor is available” in my parents’ file cabinet when I cleaned out their house about a year ago. It is funny to remember that during the 1960s we were so afraid that the Russians were going to attack us.

I don’t know if my mother took the pamphlet seriously, but for some reason she held on to it. I also remember my mother telling me about when she was in the delivery room having me: Dr. Schule was standing beside her smoking a cigarette. My mom, being a big time smoker, couldn’t control her urge for a smoke. She begged the doctor for a drag off of his cigarette which he gave her. It is a disturbing story by today’s standards, but it does illustrate how much life has changed (on several levels).

In spite of my birth into a smoke-filled hospital delivery room, I have never smoked a cigarette in my life.