Anna Louise Tittman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

A. Well, there was a little hallway between the nurses l =stmom and that
was the entrance into what they call the day deck, which.mn entirely
back until you cam to a similar quarters in the rear of trhe boat. There
is where our doctors who had day duty or ni@t duty were Fesidents of the
boat, mst of whom were recent graduates fYom mdical schgol with one or
two who were mre experienced. That is where they Uved.
i
Q. Now their quarters are there at the very end. 1
A. At the very end there. On that sarru; deck is the nurse&" quarter6 and
the day deck was between the twc-if I'm saying it right-it was whe we
called this the day deck and it was entirely filled with wtle chilkn' s
beds which were--the heads went the saw way and there woqd be an i6md
between the two rows, but otherwise the beds were very cl se together. The
nothers could bfig the baby along if it was not ill eno& to be entered
as a permanent patient In the quarters where they got day land ni&t care.
Somtims it was just that they needed the alr and the go@d feeding that
they got, and so forth. One year, I was the teacher of tQe mthers. I got
them together or I would take them individually if they were new, to teach
them the mthod and the content of the formula which the doctor had provided.
Now our young doctors knew how to do that, how to presc&Qe them. They could
corn and bring all their children whom they could not lea* at home and somtims
the neighbor children too. The mothers had a good time gossiping and
so forth, and talking about their family problem. Tney on just before
the boat sailed for its day1 s outing, where they alr was and farther
away f"rom Boston. In Boston those people are like that. Then they would
leave when the boat docked, but we would have them all re;Fdy to get ff the
boat. New babies would be entered sornebimes in the even+, but rr$tly
they were entered or admitted to the wards in the mmFng+ I was tW clerk
one t-, well last year there. I was in between rqy tyo college vears,
1922. (pause) I
Q. mat sort of facilities were there for the mothers on the day deck?
A. What kind of what?
Q. Well, would they have chairs and thins for them?
A. There was a bench all the way mwd. A built-in or
bdlt ri@t along the edge on each side, and then these k
to foot with an isle d m between them. They could sit c
to--rim if it was ridning they let these curtains down, z
we had a place to keep the swn off of ;us (chuckles) if WE
it.
S
Q. How many babies were on this ward?
A. Well, that was a matter of--I don't recall the exact
but we could mke room for everybody that cam. Then we
nurse for the boat, who went t the horns of sow of the^
dren d&g the day tim when he boat was out. Well, nc
horn, no. But they'd go there throm the Visiting Nurse
then say, lWell, that baby o m to be in the boat, " or,
it down to the," and so forth. Also she would collect m:
t 1
dlt-out bench
ls, it ls l%ke foot
the bench close
2 a curtain here,
tho&t we needed
&er of admissions
ad a visiting
rmthers and chilwhen
they weren1 t
Clssociatl~ and
~u owt bo take
qrt s milk f"rorn