Most small towns in The South, at least when I was growing up, had a doctor working in them that delivered kids and mended the sick and injured… The community I lived in had such a doctor. His office was filled with different things people would bring by for payment and or gratitude for helping them when they could not afford to pay… Everyone that seemed to be down on their luck used him because there was nowhere else to go. I found myself twice in my life very sick, no insurance, and little to no money…
The first time I went to the old country doctor I had Bronchitis and Tonsillitis… I had run a fever for days and was well on my way to getting Pneumonia… Walking into his office I said, “I only have 14 dollars to my name.” He smiled and told me to sit down. After looking me over and telling me I should have come in a week earlier he picked up his phone… He called the local drug store and started off the conversation with, “I have a sick boy here. He’s got 14 dollars to work with. No that won’t do, it has to work out to 14. Okay, thank you.” After hanging up the phone he told me to go to the drugstore and pick up an antibiotic and some cough syrup. I said I had no money to pay him with. He told me to pay him when I could. And I did just that…
A few years rolled by and I found myself with an earache and a sinus infection… I had, had it for a few weeks and I couldn’t take the pain any longer. A wife, kid, and myself were living on my paycheck of 94 dollars a week, which in translation meant, I was not going to the doctor unless I thought I was dying… I picked up the phone and called the doctor’s office on a Sunday morning. I really didn’t expect for anyone to answer but I was in so much pain I really didn’t know what else to do. To my amazement the old country doctor answered. I told him what was going on. That I had, had an earache for about a month and was now running a fever. He told me to come to his office; he would meet me there and take a look at my ear… I told him I felt bad about him having to see me on a Sunday. He told me that I needed to come in because being sick could affect my hearing. He also explained that a bounty hunter had shot and killed someone in transport and needed a doctor to sigh off on some papers that he was dead so he was having to go to his office to do so…
A half hour later the old country doctor was looking into my ear while a dead fugitive lay on a gurney a few feet away. The dead man was covered with a sheet but his long gray arms hung loosely from each side of the roll-around. It was strange to say the least.
As like before the doctor asked how much I had to work with? I said 40 dollars altogether. He said 20 would set things right between us for the visit. He wrote out a prescription and I was on my way
A few years later the old country doctor passed away. I was sad to see him go for I knew there wouldn't be another doctor like him again in my lifetime. His family was having a garage sale at his office. They were trying to get rid of all the stuff he had accumulated over the years. His old building looked like it was a cross between a library and a museum. Books were wall to wall and collectibles were lying on display with hand written price tags.
As I walked around quietly, looking at all there was to see and reflecting on the passing of the town's doctor, something shiny caught my eye. Waking over I looked down upon a small end table. Atop were 3 items, an old metal ice-cream scooper, an ice pick, and some type of strange metallic gun with an egg shaped barrel. I pondered for a while what it might be. I had never seen a gun quite like this one, and why would it be in this doctor's office? A man stood next to me looking at other things for sale. I didn't want to pick it up not knowing what it could be. Was it a cake decorator? Some strange eggbeater? A party favorite that you made noise with? I thought. Finally I reached for the strange looking gun. Picking it up, it felt cold to the touch. I could see it had some type of trigger on it as well. Is it some type of ice maker? What the hell is this? I thought. I could feel the stranger's eyes now on me. With a heavy stare he waited for what was to happen with my new found discovery. So with all the caution I could muster, I squeezed the trigger and watched its end pop open like a Y!!! I instantly knew what it was; I didn't know the name, but I knew what it was. I dropped the speculum back down on the table. The man next to me, who was much older and laughing hysterically at this point said,“You know what it is now.”
I said goodbye to the old country doctor that day, and became a little more worldly in the process...
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