All perfect

A mother’s work is never done — but modern technology has made it a little easier, according to five generations of moms in Marian Johnson’s family.

Johnson, who helped run Otto’s Cafe with her late husband Frank Johnson, welcomed her latest great-great-grandchild, McKenzi Rose Lee, daughter of Amanda and Jason Lee, on April 21.

McKenzi was the first child of her parents, the first grandchild of Glennis Peck, and the first great-grandchild of Beverly Largent.

“I’ve got a lot of great-great-grandchildren,” Johnson said. “All of them are perfect.”

McKenzi was born at Mt. Carmel Regional Medical Center.

“I was born in 1919,” Johnson said. “Most babies were born at home then, and the doctor came to the house. When I had my babies, they kept you 10 days in the hospital, and the babies were kept separate from the mothers. I didn’t know babies cried at night until I got home.”

The cost, Johnson said, was $50 for the hospital and $50 for the doctor.

“I don’t think $50 would cover my first doctor’s office visit,” Lee commented.

The role of fathers has changed.

“Before, a lot of daddies walked the floor in the waiting room, or tried to look through that little window in the delivery room door,” Largent said.

But Jason Lee was present for his daughter’s birth.

“There’s not a doctor or nurse big enough to keep me out,” he said.

Babies and mothers are dismissed within a day or two, if all goes well, and the babies have to ride in a car seat.

Those were unknown when Johnson’s children were small.

“I drove many a mile with a baby laying on the front car seat,” she said.

Disposable diapers were also far in the future.

“I think they were coming in when I had Amanda,” Peck said. “I was going to do cloth diapers, but before too long — forget it!”

Thankfully, Johnson had a washing machine to do her children’s diapers. “Back then, you could rent washing machines by the hour,” she said. “They would bring them out when you wanted to do a washing, and two hours later they’d pick them up and take them back to the store.”

Even her mother had a washer, she added.

“My mother’s washing machine had a lever on the side which operated the agitator,” Johnson said. “We kids had to spend 15 minutes on that lever to do our share.”

Baby bottles were made of glass and had to be boiled. Later on, the switch was made to plastic.

“With my two youngest children, I had a dishwasher and had to boil the nipples, but not the bottles,” Largent said.

Johnson likes the cute outfits that babies now have, and said that has changed, too.

“All babies, boys and girls, used to wear long dresses,” she said. “When mine started walking, around 11 months, I put them in rompers or shorter dresses. And babies also used to wear something that most people have never heard of now — belly bands. Those were cloth bands that protected the navel. If the baby had an ‘outie,’ they’d put something solid, like a button, over it and the band held it in place. Now they don’t feel that’s necessary.”

“I think the fabrics they have for babies now are so much nicer — no more of those linty blankets,” Largent said.

Babies also have fine strollers, crib-changing table combos, etc. “The new things they have for babies now are just marvelous,” Largent said.

“I had a canvas baby buggy that collapsed,” Johnson said. “In my baby picture, I’m in a wicker buggy.”

“I want to know why McKenzi didn’t have her own cell phone when she left the hospital,” Peck said. “But she does have her own blog.”

She added that, when the baby was born, she took McKenzi’s photo with her cell phone and was able to e-mail it to out-of-town relatives.

“There’s one thing that hasn’t changed — the babies,” Largent said. “They’re still precious.”

“I think this little generation is by far the best,” Johnson added. “Babies are healthier
now, and they have better equipment.”