The Book of Me, Written By You ... The 102nd Day of the Year (Prompt 2)

Prompt 2:  The prompt for week 2 is "Your Birth" and these are the questions.

• Do you have any baby photos?
• Where were you born?
• Who was present at your birth?
• Dimensions?
• What day was it? Time?
• Did you have hair? Eye color
• Are you a twin?

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Tina Marie Starks, August 1960

I was born on a Monday, April 11, 1960, at 12:45 p.m. in Chicago, Illinois.  It was the 102nd day of the year.  My father is Black and my mother is white.  They moved north to Chicago from Chattanooga, Tennessee to have me. The 1960's was a very volatile time and Chattanooga was one of the cities where students were having sit-ins at the local five and dime lunch counters. 

My mother came to Chicago two months before I was born and my father arrived a few months before my mother.  She gave birth to me at Cook County Hospital and there were no complications.  I was a single birth and I am the only child that they have together.  As far as I know, other than the medical staff, she was alone during delivery.  I weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz.  when I was born.  The little hair that I had was dark brown and my eyes were medium brown.  The doctor stamped her discharge papers "live child" and we went home together on April 14th.

My dad told me that he named me.  He said he liked the name Tina it was short and sweet. He felt it would be easy to spell and easy to pronounce - one less thing for me to worry about.  My middle name Marie was taken from his sister's name, Doris Marie. As he repeated my names he smiled and said they have a ring to them.  I could tell that he felt proud, and for a few seconds he returned to the moment when he was in charge of  naming me.

The baby picture above was taken of me in August 1960 by my father.  He took most of our family pictures.  He gave me this picture several years ago and I cherish it, not because it is a picture of me, because it reminds me of a tender moment when my father shared my story with me.