The "Were You Born In A Barnyard?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a story in my local newspaper that reminded me of my friends Jere and Sue.  The three of us graduated from high school together.  The two of them had dated during high school and eventually fell in love and got married.  My wife Carol and I have become good friends with Jere and Sue, who moved to State College a few years ago.  We try to visit with each other from time to time, but visits have been scarce the past few years due to COVID as well as a few medical problems in both our families.  One thing that both families have been doing since Jere and I retired together in 1999 from working at Manheim Township High School, our old alma mater, has been to keep scrapbooks of our vacations we have taken together since that year.  Trips to Hawaii as well as multiple Caribbean islands have filled numerous scrapbooks which are still fun to share when we visit each other.  But, Sue has also kept scrap books of her and Jere's life together which reminded me of the story I read in today's Sunday newspaper.  Story of a fellow named Bob who grew up in Elburn, Illinois which is a farm town of about 600 people.  Corn is the primary crop, but cattle farming also fills the time of most farmers in town.  Bob's birth certificate tells he was born in Copley Hospital in Aurora, Illinois in 1936 as does his passport application.  Seems that Copley is the nearest major hospital, so no one ever noticed the differences in the towns.  But, when Bob's mother died when he was in his 50s, he discovered something quite different.  His mother was buried in a family plot in the cemetery at the south end of Elburn.  The family recently gathered in the basement of the old family home in St. Charles that his parents built and lived in until Bob's Dad retired and moved to a retirement community with his wife.  Bob's brother, Malcom then moved into the home.  As the family was visiting in the basement of the home once again, Malcom appeared with a newspaper clipping he had saved for years in a series of scrapbooks housed on wooden shelves in the basement.  Seems he had saved these clippings for years and years in the basement; clippings from the Elburn weekly newspaper which told the life of he and his family.  Exactly what Sue has been doing for her family since she and Jere were married years ago.  Well, one of the clippings that Malcom produced told the story about his mother, aided by his father, giving birth to a baby boy in the barnyard.  That baby would have been Bob.  He then began to wonder what it would have been like had he known this small fact years ago.  Back in those days, the 1940's and 50's, if a kid left the door open when going out or coming into the house, someone would holler, "Close the door---were you born in a barn?"  If he had known about his birth he could have replied, "No, a barnyard!"  But, recently he did find an opportunity to use his unusual birth story when a hostess at a party challenged her guests to a game where each player wrote down three things about themselves...one of which was not true.  When he wrote down "born in a barnyard," all the other players chose that as his false story.  Needless to say, he had a bit of explaining when he told them it was really true.  So...you have any stories to top this one?  I'll bet not!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.