Belly Buttons Part five

One of the most interesting tales about presidential belly buttons revolves around the strange case of Richard Milhous Nixon. President Nixon was born in Yorba Linda California to Francis and Hannah Nixon. His mother was a devout Quaker who none the less had many strange quirks. She eschewed the services of physicians and preferred to have a midwife help her deliver her son. The most popular and competent midwife was an Italian immigrant named Natalie Della Sinatra who soothed and mothered the young Quaker as she prepared for motherhood. It was a dark and stormy night on January 9, 1913 that Hannah Nixon went into labor. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until it was determined that it was a breech birth with the future president’s feet preceding him into the world. His little feet were motley and discolored looking almost like little cordovan wing tips. Now in that day and age it was very dangerous as the child had to be born before it was deprived of too much oxygen. The midwife coaxed and pleaded with the mother but finally had to pull the child out by main strength. The reason for the delay was readily apparent as Mrs. Sinatra began to scream and wail. She shouted “Coda de Diavolo…Coda de Diavolo…Jesus Christo.” Francis Nixon burst into the birthing chamber drawn by the shrieks emanating from the distraught midwife. When he looked at his new born son he was shaken, for instead of an umbical cord there was a forked tail. The Coda de Diavolo…The tail of the Devil. Young Mr. Nixon was a man of action. He slapped the midwife to stop her hysteria. He slapped his wife to stop her wailing. And he slapped his new son for being born with a tail. Mrs. Sinatra recovered her wits and quickly cut off the devils tale with pruning scissors and tied off the umbilical cord. But she was so shaken that she moved across the country to Hoboken New Jersey to never be heard of again. Francis Nixon could never show love to his son after that night, with unfortunate consequences for his character. But that baby grew up to be the President of the United States. That is of course a different tale of the devil.

(The Long and the Short of It, Presidential Penises by Doris Kearns Goodwin, St. Martins Press)