I was expecting our second child and suffering from a cold in late March of 1954 and my doctor, Dr. Gregory from Webb City, thought I needed to be closer to Mom and the hospital, so I stayed with my Mom and Dad in Nashville, MO., while Morris went back to our apartment in Kansas City, some 150 miles away, to finish working for Santa Fee Trailways, loading trucks at night on the docks. Morris came down from our little apartment in Kansas City for the weekend on Saturday April the 24th. We had just gone to bed when I started having contractions and we knew it was time to make that trip to the hospital in Webb City. This baby was a little bigger than his older brother had been at birth and the doctor thought I was going through more than usual pain so they did give me something for it.
Michael Dwaine Johnston arrived at 12:25 A.M. on Sunday April 25th, 1954, weighing in at 8.07 lb. He had a vigorous voice and active legs. They always gave new babies foot prints on their hospital certificate and somehow his was blurred and it looked like he had 6 toes on one foot and my Dad laughed and told me that he had 6 toes on his feet. Of course I had to check that out the next time they brought him in for me to feed him.
The Ranch house was not quite ready for us to move into it, so I went home to Mom and Dad’s on the third day. Morris came down the next weekend and installed a little two-burner wood stove that Uncle Big (Judson Johnston, who owned 160 acres just north of the land John owned) loaned to us.
It was May when I finally managed to move up to the Ranch. That was my first night, and Michael’s first night in our House On The Prairie.
The west wind howled against the house, making if feel colder than it was and the heat from that little wood stove felt good as I sat and rocked baby Michael in my little rocker next to that warm fire as it was cool for this time of the year. Little Ken, who was only 16 months old cried and cried, as he had been my baby and expected for Mama to rock him and give him his bottle. He stood by my chair and could not give up, so Morris picked him up and carried him to bed with him and soon he stopped crying and fell asleep in his daddy’s arms.
