Only Your Mother Knows for Sure?

Hello Folks! — A man can no more talk about something he doesn't know than he can come back from somewhere he hasn't been.

—o—

Seems that we will just have to relearn that civil responsibility comes before civil rights.

—o—

I walked into the court house in Mellette County South Dakota and was re-aquainted with my former classmate Alvan Laird, Clerk of Court. After a few greetings, I told him I had come for a birth certificate. Figured I might need it someday and wanted it handy.

I told him it was May 5, 1916. He went into the vault, got out a huge but ancient book and proceeded to look up the vital information.

There was my sister Margaret and Evelyn, a year older than me; my brother Clarence whose name they had not gotten until a couple years ago when had had been ther to get his certificate. Evelyns name was just E. Edna, so I got that filed properly. But my name couldn't be found. Guess, I was just never born. Perhaps they were ashamed of me and just never got it recorded; or were they so overjoyed that they forgot it?

Maybe they just found me out of the prairie and I was never born. Anyway I must not be one of the plus two million population. I think I will ask for my income tax payments to be refunded.

Allan carefully explained to me the procedure for getting a delayed birth certificate. It sounded quite easy. "Just get your folks to sign this affidavit. Have it notorized. Get a copy of your baptismal certificate, service record of some such information."

Beings my folks are still living it should have been easy. After all they were there when it happened. At least mother must have been there I have never heard of a time when the mother was absent from such an occasion.

In the excitement of getting it all done up they got their signature on it without the witness. We got that corrected O.K. then we found out that they had to sign it in their own given name. That meant another delay. Dad rummaged through some old papers and came up with an old but still beautiful baptismal certificate. I got a copy made and off they all went for the final act. So I thought.

Today I got a letter from Allan explaining that the baptismal certificate had not stated what day I was born. Therefore it could not be used. He gave me a list of things I could check on to verify the date. Apparently, South Dakota is real fussy about this.

I don't have a thing against South Dakota. I have always said it is a good state to come from. Even HHH came from there, which doesn't make us see eye-to-eye on everything. But when a state won't even take a mothers word for it, that is going a bit too far. Wonder if friend Humphrey could do anything about it?

Tomorrow I go to the bank vault, I will try to find some papers that say I was born when I think I was born. I will get a picture taken of it and off it will go to ye old court house in Rosebud territory. I might discover yet that I was legally and lawfully born when that say I was. In the mean time I will try to be patient. It just might be I will need it someday. In the mean time all you good folks better beat a path to the court house where your birth is recorded and see that all is well there.