By Velma Rose Smith

A baby boy arrived at the Whitneyville Farm home of Arnold and Velma Smith. The little fine hair looked like he would be a red head. He was a cute baby and all the family welcomed him. At first he cried a lot, as if he didn’t like the world, but he quieted down. When he was about 2 months old his milk wouldn’t stay down. Dr. Neal put him on a formula, but that wouldn’t stay down. Zelma Hamilton, a nurse, said she knew a Doctor in Elmira. She made an appointment and we took him down. He examined him, couldn’t find anything wrong but he changed his formula and had us come back. I took him all winter, but he kept losing weight. He told me one night, I had better leave him at the Hospital for he didn’t think he would live the week out. Also told me that the high fever he had had for months had affected his brain and that he would be retarded. I brought him home. He had a new formula, Lactic acid mixed with milk at the same temperature. I made this formula. He gained on ounce that week. He weighted less at this time than at birth. We were all joyful. From then on he gained slowly. He became more alert, gained strength, and got so he sat up. All of this took time. For the 1st three months, I sat in a rocker with a table full of medicine nearby, I didn’t go to bed. Others in the family would spell me for a few minutes in the daytime. He couldn’t walk until after Dianne did. He had a tricycle he rode around. It is a sad thing he had this illness, for he had a potential of being a smart person.

“Naming the baby” has always been a family project, with everyone having a say. Several names were suggested but we kept saying we wanted something different. Jay took the phone book and would read off names. None were just right until he came to the name “Berwyn” and that was it. (It was Berwyn Wilcox so we were nearly at the end of the book). His middle name of David was chosen as that was Papa Rose’s name.

He was a cute, pretty little boy, when Wayne came home from service. When he had left he didn’t think he would ever see him again. He had dark red curly hair, the cutest smile and pretty eyes. He played well with other children. He moved quickly when Sandra fell on the hot register, caught and pulled her off. This was when Ralph was born. Mama enjoyed his coming over to sleep with them because he always picked up all the toys and put them away, and was neat, which saved her from extra work.

He helped with chores, feeding the calves, getting hay and bedding for the cows. He got a red wagon for Christmas and all the kids enjoyed that wagon. He also had a Service Station that he liked to play with.

He started to school when he was six. He couldn’t learn to read. The letters became distorted. He tried so hard, but they had no special classes at that time. The second year when he had Leona Harrison, she taught him so much. She taught him about money and how to make change. She had a “Grocery Store” and he learned about buying groceries. She had maps and a sand box where they learned about mountains, lakes, etc. He could learn by sight, and he had a wonderful memory.

He and Dianne went to Wanda’s for two weeks every summer and had a lot of fun there. She took them swimming and to the Park where there were rides.

He learned to drive the tractor when quite young. One day when we were gone, Laverne Johnston came to help him change some machinery on the tractor. One of his fingers got caught and he lost the end of it. Then later at the sawmill he froze his fingers and lost the end of one of them.

We had lots of dogs and cats while he was growing up, but he says none of them belonged to him. There was the white dog, Cubby, and Wimpy the hunting dog. After Bernadene left for Japan, her dog, Tige, took to Berwyn, making the paper route with him every day, so he really had had no pets of his own. Except – he did have a white pet mouse, in the barn, but that finally got away. We also had a pet coon which we kept in the barn. He says the only pets he had belonged to some one else, but when they died, they gave them to him to bury.

He had all the children’s diseases along with the others. He attended Church and Sunday School regularly. He was a member of the Juvenile Grange. He had the paper route for years until he was hit by a car one night on Route 6 going to the Diner with Denny Fisher. He was badly hurt and in the hospital for weeks. He was in the Hospital when John F. Kennedy was shot. He was laid up for months and has suffered back pain ever since.