While Mother Nature gave birth to the first October snowfall, Falcon resident Beth Bookman was about to give birth to a bouncing baby boy.Bookman’s labor pains started about 2 a.m. Monday morning. The snow had been falling throughout the night. About 7 a.m., Bookman’s husband, Tracy, called their midwife, Merrie MacDowell, and informed her of the situation.About 10 a.m., MacDowell called the Bookmans and gave them the bad news that the roads were closed, and she wasn’t sure she should try to come out. Tracy Bookmen said the only other option was to bring Beth to the midwife.”The possibility of having the baby in the front seat of my pickup truck while stuck in a snow bank in the middle of a blizzard didn’t appeal to me or my wife,” Tracy Bookmen said.Meanwhile, MacDowell attempted the drive but was soon intercepted by deputies who wouldn’t allow her to go through the main roads, even though she mentioned that the Bookmans couldn’t convince their little baby to wait until the sun was shining to make his entry. The determined midwife took the back roads.”She was moving slow since it was a white out and she couldn’t see the drifts,” Bookman said. “Later she called my wife … and told us she was stuck in a snow drift on Sweet Road.”Bookman and his son, Kramer, the birding columnist for the New Falcon Herald, fired up the old Ford four-wheel, which they affectionately call “Grandma,” and plowed through the drifts until they spotted MacDowell and her assistant, Sarah, “high-centered” in the middle of the road.They passed a man with a truck and apprised him of the situation. The Good Samaritan helped and they were able to pull MacDowell’s Subaru out of the drift. An hour later, they were on their way to Beth and her about-to-be born son.”Since we were gone so long, Beth feared she would be delivering the baby by herself,” Bookman said. “But we made it back, and Grandma saved the day.Highway 24 was closed and it was still snowing in some areas when a healthy 9 lb. 4 oz. made his entry at 4:21 p.m.The midwives spent the night at the Bookmans and woke up the next day to blue skies.Mother Nature must have decided that she needed to put her best foot forward for the little guy’s first full day as a brand new Falcon resident. As of this date, the Bookmans haven’t decided on a name, and Frosty just wouldn’t get him off to a good start on his first day at school.Anyway, the new little guy joins five siblings – the oldest, Kramer, is our birding columnist, and he’s followed by Benjamin, Josiah, Aaron and Havilah.Welcome to the community new baby Bookman.
