When Rh-negative Was a Problem

I've always been curious about my family history and the stories that have been passed down through generations. Over the years, I've spent many hours researching my family tree, putting together scrapbooks and connecting with relatives. Sometimes a random thought sparks a whole new area of curiosity. Recently, I was thinking about my own blood type, I found myself wondering where a particular trait in our family began. I turned to some of my cousins on Facebook to see what I could learn. What I discovered brought back some memories from many years ago that I thought I'd share. 

I am Rh-negative. 

Being Rh-negative during pregnancy requires special attention if the fetus is Rh-positive.  

My mother was and my sister is Rh-negative also. My mother came from a large family with ten children. From that I assumed that both my grandparents may have been negative also and that could be the reason they had ten healthy children. Maybe this is a false assumption, but a negative mother with  positive children can be dangerous. Without medical care for my grandmother's pregnancies, it would be really lucky to not have some problems. In the years she had children, 1909 to 1929, there was very little prenatal care. Many of my cousins said they were positive, but I only know of one of my mom's sisters being negative. I don't know about the other siblings and I probably never will.

For those who don't know, our blood has a type like A, B, AB, O and a Rh system which is positive or negative. It also has a protein on the red blood cells. A positive blood has that protein, but negative blood does not. It's more complicated than that, but that is the gist of it. If a baby inherits the Rh protein from a Rh-positive father, then the baby will be Rh-positive. For some reason if the Rh-positive baby's blood mixes with the mother's Rh-negative blood, the mother's immune system will treat the protein as a foreign invader and makes antibodies against it. 

The first pregnancy is usually alright because the mothers body has not built up enough antibodies to be harmful. It is in the future pregnancies that the antibodies can cross the placenta and attack the baby's red blood cells causing complications. The formation of these antibodies can be prevented by giving the mother a shot called RhIg or the RhoGAM injection. This was invented in 1968. If the baby of a Rh-negative mom is Rh-positive the shot is given within 72 hours or after an event such as miscarriage.

That is where my story begins. I didn't know I was Rh-negative when I was twenty two years old. In the fall of 1970 I had a miscarriage. I had some complications and was in the hospital for a few days. I did not receive the RhoGAM shot. I had never heard of it. Apparently since it was a fairly new drug, my older country doctor who was a general practitioner didn't know either. If he did, too much time might have passed since the shot must be given in 72 hours.

The next year I became pregnant again. I learned very quickly that my blood contained those antibodies I mentioned before and that I was Rh-negative. Most women loved being pregnant. I did not, I worried the whole time. Thank goodness there wasn't google or I would have been really nervous. Rh disease can cause a baby's skin to appear blue due to severe anemia and low oxygen levels, a condition called "blue baby disease." I had heard the term blue baby, many times during that time. I had to have my blood tested a lot during the pregnancy especially in the last few weeks. After delivery my baby was Rh-positive and thank goodness she was fine. Since I didn't have the shot for the first pregnancy, I couldn't have it for the 2nd. 

3 1/2 years later, I did it again. I worried again for the whole pregnancy but I wanted two children. Everything went fine and that time I delivered a 9 pound baby girl. I did panic a little after she was born. I looked over and saw her feet were blue. I said "she's turning blue". They calmly told me it was just the ink for taking her footprints. It is funny now, but I still remember the panic feeling. 

Fortunately I believe the Rh-negative legacy has ended with me. My daughters and their children are all Rh-positive. I have heard of people who have a recessive negative gene, but I don't know how that works.  My only side effects is that I have to carry a card stating that I have those antibodies in my blood. If I need a blood transfusion, this information is needed.

I still have ancestral questions about where it started. I guess I will never know. I wish I could ask my parents. When we are young it never occurs to ask all those family questions. I have done a lot of genealogy research but some of the questions could only be answered by my parents or grandparents. It didn't occur to them either. We just lived our lives. 

I know every single person in the world has their own story and has traumatic things that weren't perfect. To live this long, I am actually one of the lucky ones, but knowing my stories may help my descendants understand me as a person or explain why they are the way they are.  

Homemade Catalina Salad Dressing

I haven't posted a recipe for a long time. I thought I had done this one, but I guess not. This recipe is for Catalina Salad Dressing.

For years I made this dressing. It was my husband's favorite. I would make him a salad with whatever we had in the refrigerator. It was one of his go to lunches. For some reason I quit when he passed away. I quit cooking most things. It isn't fun to make food for one person. I went from enjoying making and eating our meals to eating whatever I can find so I don't starve. It isn't a good thing, but it is how it is. I do make a lot of soup. I figure it has good nutrition, but I eat it for several days and then throw away some. Freezing food is fine, but I either forget about it or the texture is compromised. 

I did find an excellent Honey French dressing at Menards of all places. It was very tasty and wasn't full of bad ingredients. I don't use much and would pick that up on occasion. It was about $4 for a bottle but it was good. A couple weeks ago I went there to get some pickled beets and this dressing. There wasn't any. I think it is really popular or they aren't going to sell it anymore.

Then I remembered this recipe. It has all real ingredients. It doesn't have high fructose corn syrup, Xanthan gum to thicken it, and several preservatives. I had read the ingredients in every salad dressing in my grocery store and didn't want to buy any of them. This recipe takes 5 minutes to make.

Catalina Salad Dressing

 1/4 cup Ketchup

1/4 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

 1/2 t. Onion Powder

1/2 t. Paprika

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

1/2 cup Avocado oil

Place all the ingredients together in a blender and pulse everything together. I used a stick blender. 

Store it in the the refrigerator. It may not last as long as the bottled product which lasts for years, but it is so much better. It is quite tart so you can always cut back on the vinegar if necessary. This makes a fairly small batch. I would always double it, but for me this is enough.

Making Door Mats as our Fall Craft Project

Every fall my daughter hosts a craft afternoon. Yesterday was one of those days. It was a bit impromptu. She is so busy, but yesterday afternoon worked out for us. It was just me, my daughter and her mother in law. I am not sure where she got the idea but probably a facebook or Pinterest post. I liked it because it was easy and useful. So many projects are cute, but where do you put them afterward?

My daughter Heather is a crafty girl so she had most of the supplies we needed. She ordered these very nice quality door mats and we were all set.

When we arrived all of her supplies were set up on the table. She had everything we would need. She had the blank mats, paint of every color, stencils and cookie cutters, brushes and sponge dabbers. We jumped right in.

 It was easy and so much fun. Heather is so good at hosting and her mother in law and I appreciated the break from our mundane days.

My rug that says "Hello Fall" is a little pale. It takes more paint than you would think. I was afraid to have the paint bleed through but I should have made it darker. Live and learn, it was still fun.

To end the day Heather made White Chicken Chili, Cornbread and Apple Crisp for dessert. I don't have pictures because we scarfed it down like we hadn't eaten for weeks. It was delicious. Those who live alone or cook for two know it's hard to make small meals. We are used to cooking for a family and end up with large quantities. That means either eating the same thing for five days or freezing it and forgetting about it. In my opinion frozen leftovers don't taste as good as the original. Sorry I got on that soap box. It was wonderful to have a good lunch.

It was a really good day and thank you Heather for entertaining us for the afternoon. 

My End of September Cemetery Adventure

Life is strange at my age or maybe at any age. In one day, I can be happy or sad, anxious or calm, excited or dreading something, tired or wide awake. You never know what you will get. I think I spend so much time in my own head I'm not sure either. Today I was all of the above. Many of you know that my parents had a tradition of decorating the cemeteries. They would go in the spring around Memorial Day and then pick up the baskets by October 1. It was very important to them. When they died, I felt it was my duty as the oldest child to do the same. Sometimes unspoken guilt runs deep, and I am not even Catholic. 

Today was one of those days filled with many emotions. I was happy to wake up feeling good but sad I had to drive 2 hours and 15 minutes each way to cemeteries of all places . I wish I had a travel partner or driver many times in my life but especially today. Today everyone was busy and it is almost October 1 so I had to go alone. Next it was foggy so I had to make a decision to stay home or do I go. I was anxious because of the fog, but calm when it lifted about an hour after leaving. I was excited to get out of the house and see some nice scenery but dreading the drive. Sirius radio plays the same songs over and over and I didn't have a book to listen to. I wasn't tired and was pretty wide awake so that wasn't an issue. You see what I mean about being up and down with my feelings or emotions, but I put on my big girl panties and just did it. 

As I made the drive, I saw so many photo opportunities. I saw an eagle eating a carcass, I saw a hundred birds sitting on a wire, I saw turkeys and hawks, I saw an eagle in a tree with a juvenile eagle, I saw a long train and a beautiful trestle, I saw sandhill cranes in flight and many other things. I was driving and not able to pull off for any of them. That isn't exactly true. I stopped on a country road and took some photos of the trees. The colors are getting gorgeous in Central Wisconsin. The Tamarack trees are still green but the other trees are brilliant. I also got an out of focus picture of the juvenile eagle. I was trying to take the photo quickly and a man in a pick up truck came along slowly staring me down. I'm sure he was thinking "she ain't from around here". I left quickly. An out of focus photo is better than none at all.

AND so with everything in life, nothing is as bad as it seems. The trip was fun and easy. I bought a big Coke and a breakfast sandwich like I was on vacation. Except for the fog, everything went perfectly. The baskets were in good shape so I am glad I salvaged them. If I hadn't retrieved them the cemetery would have thrown them away. I didn't talk to a soul (except my parents and grandparents in the cemetery). Oh I did say thank you to the check out person at Kwik Trip. Right now I am happy, calm, not dreading anything and wide awake. Cokes will do that for you. This was going to be a downer type day that turned out pretty darn good.

I Might Believe in Mary Worth-Whitewater Wisconsin The Second Salem

Given it's September 26, 2026 and it's the full moon, I think it is a good time to recall this memory. I just learned where the Spiritual Hub of America is, or at least was at one time. Can you guess? I didn't know either, but incidents in my past now make sense. It is Whitewater, Wisconsin. In the 19th century, Whitewater was called the "Second Salem.”

My grandson is attending the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater. He was telling his mom about people who go to the cemetery to conjure up spirits. It is tradition to go to the cemetery and it reminded me that sixty years ago I did that too. I also attended UW Whitewater although back then it was called Whitewater State University. It wasn't until 1971 that it became part of the University of Wisconsin system. 

I would never do this now, but in 1966 I was nineteen years old and we would also visit the cemetery. We would go after dark and would say "I believe in Mary Worth".  We would listen for spirits to answer back and swore we saw and heard the voice of Mary Worth. We didn't have the internet to research the subject and it never occurred to any of us to look up the origin. It was just tradition. On top of that, a few of the people from my floor would sit around and use the Ouija board. These boards were originally invented as a harmless game which was "was born directly out of the same 19th century American Spiritualism movement that fueled towns like Whitewater.” Now I see spiritual posts and people who say they would never touch one of those boards, but we looked at it like an innocent game. We would ask it all kinds of questions, like the name of the person we would marry. Believe it or not, my roommate and I both married people with the name the Ouija board predicted. I don't know when we quit, but it did get a little creepy. We went to college without all the modern conveniences today’s kids have. Thank goodness because who knows what would have happened. We had a record player and a hot pot. At night when we were sleeping, the record player would turn on by itself. Or a voice would come into our room over the intercom when the office downstairs was closed. My roommate was in the bathroom and the shower came on in another area and no one else was in there. There were weird feelings at times but we never made the connection between the spirits we invited in and the fact that Whitewater was a Spiritual Hub. Maybe that is why they tore my dorm down. It might have been haunted. We don't know if others in the building had similar experiences because no one talked about it. I think it was probably torn down for expansion but the other explanation makes for a fun story.  

My grandson was nice enough to get some pictures for me. There is the cemetery but there is also the Starin Park Water Tower (1889). It is still there surrounded by a fence. We are not sure if the fence is to keep people out or to keep spirits in.

There are three cemeteries in Whitewater. They make the "witches triangle". They are Calvary Cemetery on the north side of the campus, Oak Grove Cemetery near Washington Elementary school and Hillside Cemetery near Cravath Lake. Calvary Cemetery near campus has been known to have lights floating around. There was a big temperature change that could be felt when entering the cemetery. I wonder if the lights were just college kids with flashlights, but who am I to say? The temperature change was real. 

The Oak Grove Cemetery is the resting place for Mary Worth. She supposedly was an axe murderer. We would call up the ghost of Mary Worth, never knowing that she was an axe murderer and it seems we were even in the wrong cemetery. We could have sworn we saw and heard her. 

The last cemetery was Hillside Cemetery. The grave of Morris Pratt can be found there. Pratt, who died in 1902, was a prominent Spiritualist and the founder of what would eventually become the Morris Pratt Institute. In 1889, he opened the Temple of Psychic Science in Whitewater, which is a large building dedicated to the practice and study of Spiritualism. After Pratt’s death, the temple became the Morris Pratt Institute, a school devoted to the study and teaching of Spiritualism. The Whitewater Historical Society has an interesting article on this. It is way too much information to paraphrase but here is the link. It's very good. https://www.whitewaterhistoricalsociety.org/post/ spiritualism-the-morris-pratt-institute  Another good article can be found here: https://blogs.uww.edu/ucinfo/2021/10/18/morris-pratt-and-the-temple-of-psychic-science-in-whitewater/  The Institute has since moved to Waukesha, Wisconsin but is still dedicated to the study of spiritualism. 

Whether I believe in Spiritualism or not won't be discussed here. I am sure there are people who consider it the work of the devil and there are others who are totally in step with its energy. The fact there was a school devoted to it is very interesting to me. If you want to read more about Whitewater Wisconsin Spiritualism there is a lot of information on the internet. Maybe it's good I didn't know all the details, it might have frightened me to death. Now it has made me fascinated with something that took me sixty years to learn.   

A Star Was Never Born but She Tried

Hopefully I haven't told these stories already. I have written at length about being sick as a baby more than once. My only hope is that if I can't remember what I wrote in 987 blogs, then maybe no one else can either. 

My granddaughter called today. It is always nice talking to her since we don't do it too often. She was talking about my last blog and said I looked like a little diva. That was a shock. I never thought of myself as a diva, but maybe I was back then. I did do things that would shock the people that know the person I became.

For example, I had the lead role in a performance of "The Little Red Hen". When I was in first grade, we did the play. Maybe the other grades did a play too, but I was focused on my special role. I practiced singing the lines accompanied with the piano. My mom's friend was an elementary school teacher and she helped me. We performed on stage at the local armory. It was a big deal. It was so big that I have no memory of it except practicing and how cold the teacher's hands were when she pinned the name on my dress. I guess we didn't have costumes. I draw a complete blank about anything else. We have no pictures of this special occasion but I am pretty sure I didn't dream it. I guess I shut down during difficult times even back then. 

I do remember the story and part of the song.

"Cut, cut, cut cadacket said the little hen, see my little yellow chickens 8, 9, 10" and "then I will do it myself". That last statement was a bit of foreshadowing for my life. I still am not comfortable with asking for help and at my age, I really do need it.

The next thing that surprised her was that I took singing and piano lessons. She said maybe you are more like your grandchildren than you thought. I didn't go very far with these lessons because I didn't have the courage to perform in public but it did me well in college when I had to take music classes. That was not the case for my husband. Poor Mike couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. We used to play games in the car where he would hum a song, and I would try to guess it. I couldn't guess most of the time. His go to song was Country Road by John Denver and I usually got that right. He had to take music classes also and one professor actually had him stick his head down in the piano to try to mimic a sound. He practiced "Go Tell Aunt Rhody, the Old Gray Goose is Dead" on the piano many times in order to get a passing grade. Good thing they had music teachers when he actually became a teacher. I miss that side of my husband that very few people saw. He had his stern teacher look but was a softy on the inside and he sure loved his girls.

I sure wish I had pictures of this. The Danish side of my family was very musical. I know I have mentioned this before but my mom could play the piano by ear. She could hear a song and play it. Many of her siblings could do the same and sing along. Some had offers to be professionals. My grandpa had a lot of songs from the old country he would sing all the time. Maybe that's where two of my grandsons, Dylan and Jack got that talent from. They sing all the time. You always know where they are because they are singing. My daughters also love to sing and dance. I guess if you have the beat in your genes, it has to come out somehow. 

Who knows what other memories will emerge. They say old people start remembering the past more than the present.  Stay tuned, who knows what I will remember.

A Blast from the Past

Before I give up the writing of this blog completely, I have been thinking of some old stories from my life that my grandchildren would like to hear. They have no idea what life was like in the late 1940's and through 1999. Or what it was like on January 1, 2000 (Y2K) when we thought the world would end or at the very least all technology would go to black. Nothing happened but it was stressful. Us older individuals couldn't imagine we would live to see the world as it is today. 

 This was our family picture from 1951. People dressed up. In the 1950's women wore dresses. My mom wore house dresses and aprons. I remember up until the 1960's women very rarely wore pants. It was 1966 when the pantsuit was debuted. I remember my grandma wearing pants to go fishing once in a while, but she almost always wore a cotton house dress. Looking back on it, she probably wore my grandpas pants so she didn't get her dresses dirty when they were fishing. Women did not have several pair of pants. Men and women did not wear athletic shoes. It wasn't until the 1960's when I remember getting white Keds. They were tennis shoes and were about the only shoes of that type people wore. We started to wear pedal pushers (today they are called capris), we wore shorts and even blue jeans on occasion. Times were changing. Men did not wear blue jeans in the 1950's but wore slacks and dress shoes. The kids can't believe I had to wear dresses to school. When you knelt down the hem had to touch the floor. No short skirts were allowed. I think that changed in the late 1960's and 1970's, but in 1965 when I graduated those were the rules. The boys had to have their shirts tucked in, wear belts and slacks. We definitely had a dress code. I grew up right on the edge of a fashion change. Now anything goes.

Food was also different many years ago. Food was real and rarely did anyone have an allergy to nuts or gluten. As food companies tried to make bigger profits, they added color, fake flavors and highly processed oils. Additives were added to animal feed for quick growth and weed killer put in the soil for higher yield. In the 1950's hardly anyone went out to eat. We ate at home. McDonald's started back then but it was a big deal. All the other modern fast food restaurants didn't exist. In fact as gross as it sounds my dad hunted squirrels, rabbits, deer and clunked frogs for meat. I can't imagine eating that stuff now, but that was part of our diet. Believe it or not, I can remember when pizza parlors opened up. Now pizza is as common as bread.

There was no such thing as a shopping mall. There were a few stores like Sears, hardware stores. grocery stores, pharmacies, a dime store and general all purpose stores but a lot of people ordered out of catalogs. The mail order catalogs like Montgomery Ward and Sears were how we got our clothes. The United States postal service was dependable back then. Now it takes more than a week to mail something two miles, if it arrives at all.

Grocery stores gave out something called Green Stamps. After every shopping trip we would put the stamps in books. When we had collected enough books, we would travel to Illinois and trade in the books for household goods. My parents got a television, table lamps which I still have, and a variety of other things for the house. While in Illinois we would buy a case of Oleo margarine. The margarine was white and it contained a orange button that would be kneaded into the oleo to make it yellow and look like butter. Wisconsin, the dairy state, didn't allow margarine so a lot of people went to Illinois. Looking back it had to be very unhealthy, but it was cheap. I felt really rich when we were able to buy "real butter". 

Entertainment was different too. Of course there were no smart phones or computers. Imagine having to look things up in an encyclopedia or another reference book. We didn't even have a television until I was around 8. The TV channels came on at 4pm and went off at midnight (maybe even earlier). There were only a few major TV networks with news programs and variety shows.  People went to the movie theater to see movies. Then came DVD's and CD's and now you can stream almost any movie at anytime. 

There are so many examples of how things have changed in the past seventy years. I never thought I would live to see what has happened. It was all science fiction. Buck Rogers from around 1930 was about space travel and communication devices. All imagination that could never happen. I remember having to read the book 1984 by George Orwell and big brother watching us. 1984 was 42 years ago. Good lord. Now big brother watches and listens to us everyday.

I can't even begin to remember all the differences in my lifetime. It boggles the mind. The kids now days can't identify with any of this. I don't even know anyone over the age of five that doesn't have a smart phone. Some children have them by the time they go to kindergarten. They are most peoples' entertainment. I hate it but I am one of them. If I forget my phone, I almost panic. We didn't even have answering machines and caller ID was an extra cost that wasn't necessary. We managed and even lived to tell about it. No wonder everyone has anxiety. We didn't know everything about everything, so life was calmer. Maybe it's a good thing I am old. My brain is full.