Still wading through my found New York Times that was buried in a tote in my kitchen, I read the oddest article while on the treadmill. Titled,"And Next to the Bearded Lady, Premature Babies" by Michael Brick. What?!!

It seems that from 1903 to the 1940, Dr. Martin A. Couney used preemies as a freak attraction in incubators, just like the other participants like the bearded lady and such. Here is the intro:

The babies were lined up under heaters and they breathed filtered air. Few of them weighed more than three pounds. They shared the Boardwalk there on Coney Island with Violetta the Armless Legless Wonder, Princess WeeWee, Ajax the Sword-Swallower and all the rest. From 1903 until the early 1940's, premature infants in incubators were part of the carnival.

It cost a quarter to see the babies, and people came again and again, to coo and to gasp and say look how small, look how small. There were twins, even, George and Norma Johnson, born the day before Independence Day in 1937. They had four and a half pounds between them, appearing in the world a month too soon because Dorothy Johnson stepped off a curb wrong and went into labor.

I am a preemie, born way too early back in 1971. This article grabbed my attention as I had spent my early weeks somewhat "on display" in an incubator. The photos of me in the machine are the first baby pics that I have and I adore looking at them. I even took them to sharing when I was in grade school, I was so proud of my unusual beginnings.

At least 8,000 babies passed through the incubators, and the doctor was credited with saving at least 6,500, according to news reports of the time. The Johnson twins made it off the Boardwalk and grew up strong and tall. George Johnson found work, and a sense of freedom, driving trains up and down the coast for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Norma Johnson married a man named Coe. Between the twins there are nine children, 13 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. George and Norma attended Dr. Couney's induction ceremony yesterday. "My father didn't have any money, and this doctor says you can use our incubator for free, but you have to put them on display on Coney Island," Mr. Johnson said, sitting next to his sister on the porch at the Sheepshead Bay Yacht Club the other day. "It was us and a lot of other people, too."

Reading this, I wonder if my parents would have chosen this for me back in that time. I'm positive that they would have. Anything, even public display, would not have stopped them from trying to save me. What an interesting article.