Adventures While Babysitting

This story happened around 1947 when my younger sister, Virginia, was just getting her front teeth. I guess that would put her about one year old and I would be four going on five.

We had a rather large garden with an orchard at one end. On this day, my mother decided to work in the garden, probably chopping weeds.This would take some time so she put Virginia into an apple crate or apple box as we called it. It was made of lightweight wood all around and about 10 to 12 inches high and 20 inches long. Mother lined the crate with a small quilt or blanket and placed my baby sister into it. Virginia fit right into the box and about all she could move was her arms. Mother placed the box under a large peach tree that had some shade to it. She gave Virginia a small rattle to play with and told me to keep an eye on her and to move or slide the box into more shade as the sun moved. Since Virginia was also teething and drooling a lot, Mother also told me if the baby dropped the wet rattle on the ground, I should clean it up before giving it back to her. I said “OK.”

Yea right! Mother commenced to chopping in the garden and I amused myself playing with my little toy tractor in the sand. I’d take popsicle sticks, break them in half, and stick them in my “corn patch” and proceeded to cultivate them with my tractor.

Well all this plowing made me concentrate really hard and I kind of forgot all about my baby sister in that apple crate. My concentration was suddenly shattered by a scream coming from my mother who had come to check on us. The scream was followed by a phrase I had heard many times before when something went or was drastically wrong. It consisted of three words in Czech, which translated as “Jesus, Mary, Joseph! I thought I told you to watch her!”

Now let me see if I can describe the scene before me. Remember I mentioned Virginia’s two front teeth? Well, believe me, those two white teeth were the only white to be seen on her smiling face. You see, we had a flock of chickens that ranged freely all over the front yard and especially in the garden. Naturally, they would deposit their poop anywhere and everywhere they walked!

Evidently, Virginia had dropped her rattle on the ground and in trying to retrieve it, she had found something more interesting. She grabbed one of those chocolate mounds and ended up smearing it into her curly hair, her ears, all over her face, up her nose, and when she got it into her mouth, the brown saliva just oozed down her chin!

My mother grabbed Virginia out of the crate, and, screaming words that at that time were still foreign to me, proceeded to run to a nearby water hydrant. She did a fair job cleaning her up, but as far as the smell goes, I think even “Jesus, Mary, Joseph” couldn’t help. Perhaps some Holy Water might have helped.

Needless to say, I don’t think I got the rest of my “cultivating” done that day!