Baby delivered in pickup at Greencastle Speedway station

Wrapped in a blanket against the extreme cold, newborn Jameson Parker makes his entrance into the world Wednesday morning in an unconventional location — in a pickup truck outside a Greencastle Speedway gas station.

Courtesy photo

His mom and dad named him Jameson.

His grandma says she might just call him “Speedy” — he certainly made a speedy entrance.

Either way, there’s no doubt newborn Jameson Parker came into the world in a unique way at approximately 8:30 a.m. Wednesday — delivered by his own father in the passenger seat of a 2007 Ford F-250 ... at a Speedway gas station ... while the temperature outside hovered at or below zero degrees Fahrenheit.

Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, Jameson and mom Sierra seem to have come through it without major complications, dad Jon Parker reported from IU West Hospital late Wednesday morning.

“He’s doing great,” the proud papa told the Banner Graphic. “He’s 7 pounds, 10 ounces and 19.5 inches long.”

Still, the ideal place for delivery would have been at the Avon hospital, not 32 miles southwest at the intersection of Indianapolis Road and 10th Street in Greencastle.

Ironically, the saga actually all started with trip to the hospital a day earlier. Sierra was involved in an automobile accident on Tuesday. While she escaped any kind of serious injury, at 38 weeks pregnant, she nonetheless visited the hospital for examination.

With a clean bill of health for both Mom and the then-unborn baby, the Parkers made their way back to Greencastle Tuesday night. Jon said he should have stopped on the way home for gas, but decided to forego it until morning.

But with morning came the contractions.

“Her contractions started, and we took off but had to stop and get gas,” he said, “and it happened there at the Speedway gas station.”

Jon had called mom Tami Van Rensselaer to pick up their older son, one-year-old Jackson, so the couple could continue on to the hospital. But as Jon was pumping gas and Tami was arriving, things escalated quickly.

“Sierra knocked on the window and told me the baby was coming,” Jon said. “She was in the passenger seat and she was yelling and I realized what was happening.”

At that point, there was little time to react.

“I went over and he was starting to come out, so I pulled him the rest of the way out,” he said.

The baby was then wrapped in a blanket as they awaited the arrival of an ambulance.

“I believe the temperature was like negative one. It was pretty wild,” Jon said with a laugh.

Emergency personnel from Putnam County EMS and Greencastle Fire Department tend to Sierra and Jameson Parker Wednesday morning after the latter made his unexpectedly quick entrance into the world.

Courtesy photo

Crews from both Putnam County EMS and the Greencastle Fire Department were soon on the scene, telling Jon he had done a good job under the circumstances.

“Everybody was good,” Jon said. “The EMTs showed up, put her in and gave her an IV. I followed them up here to the hospital.”

Besides Mom, Dad, Jackson and grandma Tami, Jameson has a number of local relatives to welcome him, including grandpa Mark Parker and great-grandparents John and Judy Crosby and Carolyn Parker.

There’s even some family history to the truck, as it’s one that Jon bought from his grandpa Crosby. Great-grandma even had a rather alliterative observation about it.

“She said, ‘He was born in his great-grandpa’s green truck at a gas station in Greencastle,’” Jon said.

For his part, the new dad is counting his blessings that they were stopped at the station rather than driving down the road.

“It was kind of a good thing I was out of gas or I probably would’ve been doing that on U.S. 40,” he said.

He’s right. Should Grandma’s nickname stick, “Speedy” is a far better nickname than “National Road” or “Route 40” or “Somewhere Outside Stilesville.”