Almost Born in A Barn! (Blog #45)

More than a few times as I was growing up on the farm, I heard someone say to me, "Close the door! Were you born in a barn?" Well, I wasn't quite born in a barn. Even though the story is exciting, I am not sure it was even close. However, as I continue to reflect, it seems like an appropriate story for this blog post.

Numerous times, the events of that day almost 50 years ago have been recounted to me. While I don't presently recall the weather conditions of that late July day as they have been recounted, several of the other events are firmly entrenched in my memory from being told during my formative years. There is a barn in this story and cows too!

Apparently our neighbors' dairy cows had gotten out of their fenced pasture and he came over recruiting assistance rounding them up and herding them to the proper location. It would seem as though my father and several of my sisters had gone to assist, leaving my mother and one or more of my sisters to get started with milking our family dairy herd. Growing up, nearly all of our neighbors were dairy farmers. Cows getting out of a fenced area or pasture was not that uncommon in that day and more than once, our own herd had breached the pasture fence or managed to work the gate open and take off for the neighbors' corn or hay fields. Might I also add that many pasture fences were of less than top quality during my youth.

In any event, it was during the evening milking that my mother went into labor. Nine months pregnant, my mother was in the dairy barn milking cows. Somehow, my father was summoned or returned home and proceeded to take my mother to the Owatonna Hospital where I was born. Since my birth is recorded at 8:37pm and our farm was approximately 30 minutes from Owatonna under normal circumstances, it would seem that there was not a lot of time wasted that evening. Growing up, we typically started the evening milking about 5:30pm. As you can see, we were working with a very tight time window.

What would have happened had my father not been able to get my mother to the hospital? Well, it is not likely that I would been born in the barn. Surely, my sisters would have helped mother back into the house. I wasn't almost born in a barn but it makes for an exciting story nonetheless. Still, today I would respond to anyone who asked me if I was born in a barn, "No but almost!"

~ DB Turnmire