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Barbara Greenshields (nee Jupp) was just an infant in the 1920's
'It was about this time that I first remember going to the dentist, although there must have been a previous visit to arrange what was to come. Mother took me on the bus to Bognor. Mr Sams (I think was his name) had his surgery in the High Street, a little way back from the road, approximately where Southern Electricity now have their showrooms.
Great fun was had in the waiting room playing 'Bears' with Doctor McNair. We were both on all fours crawling under the table and growling at each other. But oh dear! going into the surgery was no fun at all. 'Come on, blow up this big balloon for me, Barbara', he coaxed, at the same time covering my face with a horrid rubbery thing. I just screamed into it...
'My teeth have gone all soft Mummy', I complained later when we were home again.
'Look in the mirror', she said, and I saw myself, all pink and gummy. My four top front teeth were missing and two from the back of my lower jaw. I didn't much care for the steamed fish I was given to eat. Fortunately my permanent teeth grew straight and strong and, at the time of writing I still have them.
I was nearly five when I met Doctor McNair again, when a new baby brother arrived in January 1929. I sat next to Mother in bed and held him. He was named Brian Peter, soon to be known as Peter or Pete.
'How does God make babies'? I asked my parents shortly after Brian Peter was born.
'He makes you out of putty and puts you on a shelf to dry', said Dad, 'then after a day or two he comes and gives you a poke in the middle to see if you're done. That's how you get your belly button'. Surely he was joking. Our baby wasn't a bit like putty.'
I've heard quite a few stories about how babies come into the World, but never this one!
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