Happy Birthday, Kelly!

Thirty-five years ago today we lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where David was serving as a proud member of the 82nd Airborne at Ft. Bragg. We chose to have Kelly "off base" in a real hospital, so we had to pay $25 and went through Champus and he was born at Cape Fear Valley Hospital. That $25 was mostly to pay for my food. To be honest the labor part of it was less than a memorable experience. It took about 36 hours for Kelly to decide to be born. He was about 3 weeks early, so I guess he was compensating.

Some of the things I remember from that night: 1. Being one of the first mothers in that night and one of the last ones out of delivery. I was all by myself all this time, David couldn't be there with me---a fact that didn't happen going through cancer treatment except during the 2 surgeries. 2. They gave me this stupid button to push that was supposed to give me some relief from the contractions. I'd never heard of such a thing and I thought they were joking me. PLEASE! Talk about placebos! It must have been an early version of Tylenol. I didn't realize until years later what that was. 3. David had to finish watching Mary Tyler Moore before we could leave for the hospital. Looking back, given how long it took to get Kelly out, we should have stayed home lots longer. 4. Part of that long night I was in a semi-private labor room with a Spanish-speaking woman. She was REALLY hurting. She was cussing in Spanish. She was moaning. She was scaring me to death. I remember praying for God to make her baby come quick so she'd be gone! 5. The next day after delivering Kelly, I hadn't gone to the bathroom yet. The nurse was worried about me. She made me get up to go, but I didn't need to. Then she did something that just amazed me. She reached over and turned on the sink faucet. I looked at her kind of dumb (OK, a lot dumb) and she told me that it would help me go to the bathroom. Now that took the cake. And it worked about as well as that push button Tylenol. 6. I did have good food though, that I didn't have to cook. 7. David was in the room with me and Kelly so we were having some nice special time together. In tromps Grizelda and huffs at David that he wasn't supposed to be in there. Ahhhh, to be young and ignorant. Grizelda wouldn't have gotten away with that today. . . . 8. My mom flew out to help us figure out what a baby is and how to take care of him. It was her first airplane flight. They lost her luggage. 9. Kelly didn't want to eat well at first. He was a scrawny little thing, but he sure outgrew that in no time at all. He was always a happy baby, laughing, smiling and playing all the time. I've attached 3 favorite photos, not baby ones, but they're cute.
Happy 35th birthday, Kelly Ray Smith! We love you!



This photo was taken outside of Floydada, where we lived in a farmhouse. Kelly loved to climb on the windmill, but wasn't supposed to. I missed him this day and caught him up on the windmill. Being the photographer that I am, I told him to stay right there, went in the house and got my camera, took his picture, made him get down and I proceeded to warm up his bottom. This was late summer of 1976.








This one was taken not long after the one above at C&M Farms, my parents' place outside of Dickens, Texas. He was so cute with the hardhat on, almost 3 years old. That's our collie, Frisco, with Kelly. Wish he would have been more in the picture. . . . he was a mighty dog. We spent some time at my parent's house after Tony was born in June of 1976.






Kelly started kindergarten at Kress, Texas. This is his first day of school photo beside his dad's pickup in August 1979. He was a great student, although prone to finishing his work quickly and then pestering the other kids. The smart teachers put him to work helping other kids learn to read, to add and to use up all that energy, which suited Kelly just fine!