My baby book tells the story of my life from birth to age 3. My mother, Ruth Metzler Longenecker, recorded the details of my early life in a cushiony pink volume with dimensions, 6 x 8 inches, popular in mid-century America. Although the pages allowed for more, Mother stopped at age three. By that time, she had two other daughters born in a five-year span.

I was her first child, so Mother had the time and energy to fill the pages with vital statistics and short vignettes. Unfortunately, my younger sisters and brother did not fare as well.    🙁

Baby books of the 1940s and 50s usually featured  “charming, nostalgic mid-century illustrations. Common subjects included chubby, rosy-cheeked infants, anthropomorphic animals, pastel colors, and soft floral or nursery motifs. This era of design was highly detailed, often capturing a sweet, innocent postwar aesthetic.”  (Google search)

Mother told me that after the delivery, Grandma Fannie Longenecker, who lived less than a mile away, donned her apron, ready to observe and be of help after the birth of her first grandchild.

We had a scale like this—analogue, not digital—on which Mother placed a metal roasting pan, cushioned with a triple-folded blanket where the baby rested. Using a movable screw on top, she could arrive at the baby’s true weight, minus that of the pan.

Besides Metzler and Longenecker ancestors on my mother and father’s side of the family, there are Brinsers, Horsts, Garbers, Rissers, Landis’s, Harnishes and Shellys—names typical of the immigration of Mennonite families who settled in Lancaster County, PA in the early 1700s. They came to escape religious persecution in Switzerland and Germany and settle in “Penn’s Woods,” Pennsylvania, land which they cleared and cultivated.

I find it curious that this page is imprinted with the words, “Periodic Visits to the Doctor are Health Insurance.” My parents did not have health insurance back then, if ever.

Apparently, I took my first steps at Grandma and Aunt Ruthie Longenecker’s house, probably in their kitchen. Mother observes tthat my parents were “combining,” that day which means they were working the the fields, possibly the 9.1 acres they farmed in Bainbridge, Pennsylvania.

Mother wrote in cursive here, but suffice it to say that I “didn’t see Daddy on this birthday [my third]  because he went to pick huckleberries,” a fact she noted at the end.

The month, my  birthday month, I look back on my long life with gratitude. I don’t want a large cake, but if I did, it would have dozens and dozens of candles!

Shirley Hershey Showalter, an author you see here often, offers insightful comments. 

Shirley and I were both born in July though we are several years apart. (She’s younger!) Mentor and friend, we share a similar Anabaptist heritage, birthplace, and interests. Translated, that means this: We were born in the same county in the same decade, and both of us became English professors—and later—storytellers. She has blazed the trail for me, publishing her own book baby, BLUSH in 2013. You’d be astonished at the other parallels in our life experiences.

Showalter, Shirley Hershey. Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World. Available Amazon.com, 2013. This book is also available at other venues.

Little Shirley Hershey, named for a movie star, grew up with her nose pressed to the window of the glittering world. Three locations shaped her–a family farm, a country school, and Lititz Mennonite Church. She later became a college president and then a foundation executive, but the rosy-cheeked, barefoot farm girl never quite disappeared.

As Willa Cather said, “Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.” This childhood memoir tells the story of a girl who might have left the church but found another way. (Credit: Amazon Books)

My Review:

Shirley Hershey Showalter’s Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets the Glittering World sings the song of her early life as a Mennonite girl in 250 pitch-perfect pages. Born into a family of Lancaster County Swiss Mennonite parents, the author recounts the story of the first 18 years of her girlhood on an 100-acre dairy farm in the 1950s and early ‘60s. The book delivers in its promise to play out her memories of  school, church, and home, “the three legs of my childhood stool,” as she puts it. “Each carried both sweet and sour memories” of ways this plain girl fit in and ways she stood out as different. Read more here

The Mindful Grandparent: The Art of Loving Our Children’s Children was published in 2022.

Making memories and fostering relationships with our grandchildren in the midst of a fast-moving culture isn’t easy, and a legacy that lasts isn’t crafted overnight. So how do we as grandparents cultivate strong, meaningful relationships with the children we adore? (blurb)

This book, co-authored with Marilyn McEntyre, tells you why and how.    Buy Link

A few years ago, Shirley Showalter initiated a grassroots organization based in Lititz, PA (her hometown) named Grandparents for Love. Their website offer more:

• We are elders and taxpayers living in the Warwick School District who are deeply committed to the youth, teachers, and administration of our beloved community.
• Our purpose is to help elect Warwick School District Board Members who focus on learning and caring for ALL students.

Your turn:

Did your mother keep a baby book for you? Maybe a different keepsake?

What else do you know about Shirley Showalter, author and activist?

See and Hear Plain and Fancy Weddings in 1950s Pennsylvania