So much of what I find makes me smile. Other than a smile, a bit of reminiscing, and long forgotten memories floating to the surface, these things have no value. Most of them don’t take up much space so I pack them and hope some day, Chad or maybe Addie will come across them and they’ll smile also.
This is the receipt from when I was born. Two days in the hospital – $14. Operating and anesthesia – $25. Delivery – $75.
It’s truly mind boggling at how costs have increased in 66 years. Yes, technology is immeasurably improved, facilities have improved, but the costs then vs. today – it’s hard to believe.
Teeth! Most of Chad’s baby teeth in the drawer of my jewelry box. I packed them. I’ll show them to Addie and if Chad doesn’t want them, which I know he will not, and he will chastise me for having kept them, along with every paper and note he brought home from school through the years, I will toss them – and then I’ll probably fish them out of the trash and save them til I die.
Elle says
Maybe you need a box labeled “Look, Laugh, Toss”. 😉
Marcie says
As a retired nurse who taught prenatal classes for many years, my eyes jumped not only to the items and costs on the receipt, but also to the date. It surprises me that in 1954 your mother’s stay was only 2 days. I was born in 1950 and the normal stay for an uncomplicated vaginal delivery was 7 days! When I was the new mother in 1976, the stay had recently been reduced to 3 days (though I went home at 48 hours because it was Christmas Day and I wanted to be at home). Your mother’s so-much-shorter stay really caught my attention!
Rebecca says
I was surprised by that, too. When I told my mother I mixed up which was her birthday and which my brother’s (1955/6), she told me she brought him home on her birthday, which was six days later! I’m curious about the cost, as my father was blue-collar and they already had three children! (So I’m sure she appreciated the time away.)
Laura says
I was born in 1958 at Miss Friese’s Maternity Hospital. As Marcie said, my mom’s stay was 7 days. I think the bill was even less than your mom’s was! When I was in my late 30s, a newspaper reporter wrote about the long-since-closed maternity hospital, describing it as the place “where the well-to-do of Bakersfield went to birth their babies and be tended to by nursemaids.” That couldn’t have been less accurate … my parents barely had two nickels to rub together. I believe maternity hospitals were just more common back then.
Karen Sutton says
I have a large clear rubbermaid box where I store all the kid memorabilia. It’s all in one place and when I’m gone they can go thru it and laugh, moan and, I’m sure, throw it away:)
Kathy says
I remember those doctors from when I was a child! I didn’t realize you were born in Many.
Judy Laquidara says
Yes. I was born there.
Nelle Coursey says
That is just being sentimental! I don’t blame you for keeping any and all of it! Just think how much it would cost to have a baby now!!
Susan says
So cool that you have the receipt from your birth! Wish I had mine. Our youngest grandchild was born 3 years ago for a bill of $40,000. Other than her mom having a c-section there were no complications.
Donna M says
The sanitarium where I was born is now a museum. I got to visit it several years ago.
Twyla says
I kept my grandson’s treasures in one of those cheap $20.00 trunks you could get at Walmart or Target. He is 24 now and we just dug it out of the shed attic and he, his wife and 6yr old daughter loved every bit of it. So I have gotten them a pink trunk for her treasures. (My daughter’s things burned in a house fire)