I get a kick out of the nicknames college football players invent for each other. For example, Ohio State has a linebacker they call “Little Animal.” Teammates found this appropriate because this player’s dad was a professional wrestler who went by the moniker “The Animal” in his heyday.<br>
I also noticed that Louisiana State has a big lineman they call “The House.” This fellow is well over 300 pounds and probably requires pilot cars if you want to move him around. I watched the OSU-LSU game with the constant worry that the Little Animal might get into The House.<br>
The game’s announcers claimed The House weighed more than 15 pounds at birth. He is said to be the biggest baby ever born in Louisiana.<br>
That may be true, but there are a lot of big-baby stories around. We could take a woman born in Oregon many years ago, for example. The local newspaper said she weighed more than 18 pounds at birth.<br>
I know that is hard to believe, but there is no doubt this was a difficult birth. The family lived way out in the boonies for one thing, and getting to a hospital was out of the question. Transportation wasn’t what it is today – about the only way to get around was by horse or boat.<br>
Babies were often born at home in those days, so this wasn’t all that unusual. People just made do with what they had, and delivering babies was often the responsibility of a midwife or a neighbor with some experience. <br>
Generally, there was a midwife within a few miles or a doctor in a nearby town. In this case, the nearest neighbor was four miles away and the closest doctor was nearly 12 miles.<br>
Babies will be babies, however, so the doctor did his best to get there on time.<br>
Doc rode horseback for eight miles, traveled by boat for half a mile and walked the rest of the way. He got there in the nick of time, and the delivery was successful.<br>
This was definitely a large baby, especially for a girl. The doctor was thinking to himself, Eight pounds maybe? I don’t think she’ll go nine.<br>
Unfortunately, Doc left his office in such a hurry he forgot his scales. So he had no way to weigh the baby. The birth certificate asked for a weight, however, and Doc had estimated them before.
He was about to write down his estimate when the baby’s father said, “Wait a minute, Doc. I’ve got a set of scales. You can use them if you want.”<br>
As luck would have it, this fellow was a fishing guide. He had a set of scales for weighing salmon and steelhead caught by his clients. Doc said those would do fine and put the baby on the fish scales.
The doctor looked at the scales. Then he turned to the new mother and said, “You aren’t going to believe this, but this little girl weighs 18 pounds, four ounces.”<br>

Readers with questions or comments for Roger Pond may write to him in care of this publication.