{"id":9403,"date":"2008-06-02T10:16:28","date_gmt":"2008-06-02T15:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/06\/02\/the-evolution-of-baby-strollers\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:26","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:26","slug":"the-evolution-of-baby-strollers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2008\/06\/02\/the-evolution-of-baby-strollers\/","title":{"rendered":"the evolution of baby strollers"},"content":{"rendered":"

D<\/em><\/strong>o you remember when you could easily see<\/em> a baby in its stroller — and could tell whether a baby was actually in a stroller without getting a search warrant? [The little cutie on the far right below is my big sister Linda, in 1949. I don’t know the two other kids.]<\/p>\n

\n

. . . <\/a> . . . . <\/a> . . . . <\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

A<\/strong><\/em> news story with a happy ending over the weekend out of nearby Abany, NY, reminded me of those days and of my occasional bemusement as baby strollers have been super-sized over the past few decades — turning into vehicles that their owners could only transport with vans or min-wagons, or buses. See “Teen saves baby who fell under bus<\/a>” (Schenectady Daily Gazette<\/em>, May 31, 2008); and “Teen: ‘I don’t feel like a hero’:<\/a> Boy who grabbed baby from beneath bus receives thanks” (Albany Times Union,<\/em> June 1, 2008); plus a video<\/a> from CBS-6-Albany). As the TU <\/em>reported yesterday:<\/p>\n

\n

“Amanda Hoffman of Bertha Street was trying to get Anthony, her 5-day-old baby, and a stroller on the bus by pulling the stroller up the stairs of the bus.<\/p>\n

“Unknown to her, the baby fell out of the stroller, hit the blacktop and rolled underneath the bus tire, police spokesman Detective James Miller said.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Luckily, fourteen-year old Tyler Purvis-Mitchell, “saw the baby underneath the bus in front of a wheel. He quickly grabbed the baby as the bus was about to take off.” The infant received only a cut on his forehead and some scrapes, and was released from Albany Medical Center Hospital later that afternoon.<\/p>\n

\n

. . . . . . . .<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

How did this happen? According to the Times Union<\/em>:<\/p>\n

“During an interview at her home Saturday evening, Hoffman said she knew something had dropped out of the stroller, but thought maybe it was a bottle. A strap on a car seat inside the stroller may have been loose or not snapped, she said. She said the teen acted quickly to save Anthony, a dark-haired, 7-pound baby born just May 25.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, I have nothing particularly deep to add to the reactions you are probably having to this tale. One more example of bigger not necessarily being better — and of the importance of an ounce of prevention. Best wishes to Anthony Hoffman for a long and interesting life. And, thanks to Tyler Purvis-Mitchell for his quick thinking and action.<\/p>\n

update<\/em><\/strong> (June 17, 2008): Tyler Purvis-Mitchell was honored today in a ceremony at our NYS Assembly in Albany. See “Teen hero honored by state Assembly<\/a>” (CBS6Albany.com<\/em>\/WRGB, June 17, 2008), which notes that “A resolution was presented on the floor of the State Assembly this morning to celebrate Purvis-Mitchell’s heroism.”\u00a0 And concludes, “Tyler humbly said he did not expect to be a hero, nor did he ever imagine he would be recognized for saving a life.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

sleepless . . .
\nthe baby\u2019s age
\nin days<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

children\u2019s ICU\u2013
\na tissue box beside
\nthe pay phone<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

I smile at her
\nsmiling at the baby
\nsmiling<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

… by John Stevenson<\/a> from Some of the Silence<\/em> (Red Moon Press,1999)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you remember when you could easily see a baby in its stroller — and could tell whether a baby was actually in a stroller without getting a search warrant? [The little cutie on the far right below is my big sister Linda, in 1949. I don’t know the two other kids.] . . . […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[555,1414,2927],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu","category-qs-quickies","category-schenectady-synecdoche"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-2rF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12267,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9403\/revisions\/12267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}