Re: [gardeners] Still no frost!

pennyx1@juno.com (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 5 Nov 2002 02:12:13 -0500 

Dear me yes, once a year castor oil used to be the rule. Not in my 
childhood, however. When things got rough, we were given Agarol.
Now Agarol was white, thick, and tasted like a combination of
used engine oil and fermented cockroaches, but we were allowed
to hold our noses while we swallowed.  It helped.  

There were two occasions in my life when purgatives took the
front line. 

One sunny summer's day, my Dad was playing golf and the chief
caddy came running to tell him that his daughter was waiting for him 
on the 9th hole. Said Dad, "My daughter?  MY DAUGHTER?  Why, my
daughter is 12 years old -- how could she have gotten here..? " and
when he found out that it was my mother, he instantaneously put
himself on a rigid diet, the most important ingredient of this being
a full ex-lax every single day . . .  Boy! Talk about hitting below the 
belt! 

Time marched on in my life, and when it came time for me to drop
my second foal, nothing happened.  Since I lived out in the country, 
the doctor ordered me into the city hospital so he could persuade
Mother Nature to comply. Being the son of an old fashioned bona fide
country doctor, the first thing he did was to give me a dose of castor
oil. That worked, all right -- but in an unexpected way:  the baby
wriggled so hard that she turned herself upside down and was 
presenting herself as a breach delivery!  Now we were in trouble.. 
The next thing I knew, it being October and hay fever season out
our way, I gave a giant sneeze and blew my cork. Les joux sont
fait, as we used to say down in N'Orleans -- the jig was up, and now
the doctor had to get inventive. He commandeered a big bath
towel and rolled it up the way a kid would carry his towel on his bike 
to the swimming hole. He placed this big wad next to my tummy, and
made me roll partly onto it, the most uncomfortable situation I had
ever been in. I mean it was mean! The baby moved away from the 
pressure -- so he made me press harder on the towel, and indeed, 
she moved some more ... until that doggone child had turned 
enough to present head down once again!  

Andrea was born sunny side up, and I have always said that this is why 
she is left-handed. 


Penny, NY



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