Missing The Boat: War Stories of Thomas Alan Dirkin

21 Babies on the Farm Spring and summer work details involved some farm work, at times working alongside Polish men and women. Polish women were tough, he would say, working through their pregnancies and giving birth in the fields, then returning to work after a short break. (When telling this story in the 1960’s, he was probably using it as a reference for the lack of toughness in the current generation). Mortality in both infants and mothers in those agricultural births were probably high. I can see why his perspective was tainted. I am sure he did not wish to have his wife or daughter give birth in a field and return to work. His threshold for whining was suitably influenced by life on the farm.