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My younger brother (Roxie’s great grandson) was a toddler when Roxie related this event in 1976.  As active toddlers will do, he started playing with some lamp wires in the middle of the conversation.

Roxie: Here you’re gonna git… !  No, don’t go fool with them wires.  He could get…

Tom (Roxie’s Grandson):  Jamie, get out of there please.  Thank you.

Roxie (returning to discussing her brother Clarence): But uh.. that was…I can remember some about it, but not too much. 

A short while later, tape recorder still running, James toddled over near her gas fireplace. Roxie immediately became concerned: Will he fall? If you fall down on that furnace it’d just be too bad. 

Tom grabs him: …monkey!

—–

In the early twentieth century, there were few, if any, standard home safety precautions, no antibiotics, and health care options were limited.  As a result, childhood injury and mortality were common.  In 1909, 26.8% of all recorded deaths were of children five years or younger.  The mortality rate was certainly high, but the actual figure was undeterminable according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  

“A consideration of the deaths at the early years of life, however, is of special importance, not only because of the large number of deaths that occur during these years, but also because the number of deaths that are entirely preventable is probably greater proportionally for this period than for any other period of life, and the causes which produce them are now being successfully combated… It is extremely desirable that for such an important purpose reliable statistics of infant mortality should be available for the entire registration area, and as soon as possible for the entire United States… The correct statement of infant mortality, which term used technically denotes the number of deaths of infants under 1 year of age per 1,000 living births, depends on the accurate registration of births, which is scarcely to be found in the United States.” (Mortality Statistics: 1909, US Census Bureau p. 11)

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