Be nice; Or I will have my next fit in front of you!

The Medical profession has improved so much during my lifetime. I had a very good friend who, when he was a small boy had Scarlet fever which in turn brought on rheumatic fever, which can lead to potential heart problems. To my knowledge he is still alive and doing great. I cannot remember hearing (In the last few decades) of anyone having rheumatic fever.  It happens after someone has had streptococcal infection, which can be cured with modern day antibiotics, so perhaps gets 'nipped in the bud' before it becomes Scarlet fever.   Most of the kids of my age grew up having experienced the mumps, red measles, german measles, chicken pox, etc. We also grew up with the fear of polio. It actually ran rampant from 1950 – 55, and for myself personally, doctors in later years have suggested that I may have had a mild case of polio. The reason being is that one side of my chest is not developed as much as the other (it is hard to tell at a glance, but is true). The Doctors feel that I had a touch of polio in the one side, and it stopped growth for a short while. That may explain why, when I played baseball in 1954, I could hardly walk after each game – even though I had not run that much. If it was indeed polio! – I was very lucky. The word ‘iron lung’ was the worst thing a persons family could hear about their prognosis (next to death). Doctor Salk – thank you! “Polio”, although a crushing blow to the family, was not whispered - not like another devastating disease that today is still rampant. I remember watching the movie, Brighton Beach Memoirs (many times actually) – a Neil Simon play/movie. It takes place in pre-WWII New York, and the main actor, a young boy named Eugene says… ‘His aunt had ‘cancer’. He then explained that you never said ‘cancer’ out loud and always whispered it. Cancer – ooppppsssss. Sorry, ‘cancer’ was as much of an unknown when I was a child as it still seems to be today. So many years – will they ever be able to stop it? But, back then when people said someone else had the disease, they would lower their voice when saying ‘cancer’. I do not remember hearing of as many people (per capita) having cancer, but I guess one reason would be there were not many survivors, as they did not have the medical treatment of today to prolong their lives. So, today we do not whisper the word, but it is still one hell of a scary word to hear. Today, if anyone has a medical problem, one of the first questions people ask is – it’s not cancer, is it? I hope my Great Grand child will have some sort of a futuristic machine where she/he can keep a written journal, and mention cancer like I have mentioned polio – as a ‘has been’. With all these different afflictions that a child grew up with, or having the knowledge of – none seemed as bad (to a child - who lived in our town) as when a certain Lady would get upset with you and state “Be nice; or I will have my next fit in front of you!” She had epilepsy and she would know when she was going to have an attack (normal to call them ‘fits’ in those days). She would actually use this as a way of getting what she wanted. Everyone including the children of the town were taught that if she did have a ‘fit’ and was writhing on the ground, you had to put something on her tongue to stop her from swallowing it. Pretty scary when she is frothing at the mouth – but you did it. Writing this now, I am chuckling that she used it as a sort of weapon, but I remember witnessing her ‘fits’ – it was not a pleasant experience. I do not know if she had medication to regulate the problem, but if she did – obviously she would purposely miss the odd dose. hehehe! In a future Blog, perhaps I will talk about the ‘insane asylums’! Not a politically correct word today, but that is what they were called. And guess what, I came from a small town, but we had a couple of people in the Insane Asylums!!!

Brighton Beach Memoirs                                                                   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090774/

Iron Lung Machine – this may be disturbing to some people.

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?&p=iron+lung+machine&vid=404117128137&dt=1260172800&l=420&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts2.mm.bing.net%2Fvideos%2Fthumbnail.aspx%3Fq%3D404117128137%26id%3De90062ebe437e1453f303e0fecd8a115%26bid%3DDYB4Vuraot1xrw%26bn%3DThumb%26url%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.youtube.com%252fwatch%253fv%253dM_dt3GeCtMo&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fv%2FM_dt3GeCtMo%26autoplay%3D1%26fs%3D1%26autoplay%3D1&tit=The+Both+mechanical+respirator+%28195%3F%29+Pt.+1+of+3&sigr=11v2eqlru&newfp=1

 

Spring Thaw



Visualize covered in mud!

 I am not sure how deep the frozen tundra was, but after 5 or 6 months of below freezing temperatures, it would be considerable. The ground being frozen so solid had its advantages, as in our area there were sections of muskeg, and when frozen, you could drive horses and wagons, tractors etc. over it. When not frozen a tractor would literally sink for feet and be completely bogged down. One example of why you would cross muskeg when frozen is; if you were planning on building a fence through or on the other side of the muskeg, you could take the posts etc. over when frozen and leave them there until the ground was thawed so you could dig post holes and build the fence. The disadvantage of frozen ground is – that it has to thaw out. When a thaw occurred the snow would always melt first and because the ground was still frozen the water would run on the surface, filling ditches, all low areas, plugging wooden culverts with debris – at times causing the water to wash out sections of the dirt roads (not even the main road was paved), and finally much of this water would find its way to small rivulets, creeks and rivers, which were also in the process of thawing. As the rivers thawed, huge chunks of ice would break away and float downstream, and with the run off from the mountains and also by being fed by the overflowing rivulets and creeks, soon the river would become a very dangerous worry. None of what I have written so far is new, as the same thing happens today – the difference being there are now flood control areas, much larger culverts and better built roads. In 1943 (although we lived about 250 yards from it I do not remember) the only bridge on the main road from Edmonton to Whitecourt was taken out with a huge ice jamb. I do not know how long it took to replace it, but we did have a one car ferry that was used. In the Spring it was big news when the ‘river watchers’ reported the first break up of the ice, as from then until the thaw subsided, people were not sure how much damage, if any, would be caused – how much ‘low land’ would be filled with debris from the high water, etc. There was a small river between our town and where my Grandfather lived, and it flooding was a reason, that one year, I went to a one room school for so long. The great thing about a spring thaw is that all of a sudden anyone and everyone that still owned model T Fords, and similar vintage Chevrolets, (and other models) would bring them out of the barns, etc. fire them up, and that is the only way they could navigate through the mud, gumbo*, ruts, slush, etc. Spring driving conditions were the main reasons many kept these old cars. The secret was their very narrow tires. They could roll through deep mud much easier than a wide tire, which would get stuck very quickly. Those old cars could really move, and they were so much fun to drive. I related in a previous story about cranking, setting the air/gas ratio etc. If it wasn’t for these vehicles, I am not sure what most farmers would have done to get to town. Mind you, most farmers were pretty well self sufficient for food, raising their own livestock and chickens= eggs, and root cellars and preserves. In these early cars, the gas tank was right in front of the windshield, higher than the engine. The gas would be gravity fed and it would work great until you had to climb a hill for any distance. Once the front of the car was higher than the gas container – gravity did not work any more and the engine would stall. There were two ways to get around this problem. One was a primer pump, located on the front dash board of the car, and you would hand pump the gas to the engine and two – you would turn the car around and back up the hill – simple! My Grandfather had an old Chev, and the primer was way over on the right hand side of the dash. I got to go on dates with my older cousin as he could not reach the primer from the driver’s side, and when he and his girl friend went out I would get to go along and be the "primer pumper" – hehehehe!

*Gumbo – it is what the mud in our area was called. It would stick to you boots in huge amounts, until your feet got bigger and bigger and made it harder to walk (very heavy) – finally you had to use a piece of wood (or something similar) to scrape it away and then as you walked it would build up again. It was terrible stuff.

Pets n' Vets – Then and Now

When growing up, we had a total of 7 pets (a couple, ever so briefly). There were many other ‘farm animals’ that you would not consider a pet, that I would pay extra attention too, go out of my way to see and fuss over. I am truly an animal lover, and I think part of it is because animals are not phony. I mean, what you see is what you get – for instance, if you have a cow that is ornery, that cow will be difficult to milk every night - because she is ornery. If you have a cow that is docile, you know that every time you milk that cow, she will be docile. The same goes for other animals that I have encountered – but not people. People have moods (I know I sure the hell have) and one time they can be ‘docile’ and the next “ornery’, and until their first utterance, you do not know for sure what to expect. Hence, I really like animals – hehe. The problem with having pets is that they die. Such a short sentence, but painfully true. But – any small animals that we had in the 40s and 50s would live longer than they do today. And they lived longer without once visiting a Vet during their whole life. The main reason in the 40s and 50s,  there was very little inbreeding and trying to refine the breeds. When I was growing up, I cannot recall anyone every taking a dog or cat to a Vet. If your pet was sick, you would perhaps use something that you would have gotten from the Watkins man. They had a red ointment that damn near cured everything for human and beast! We never purchased special food for our dogs, they ate table scraps, were given large bones to gnaw on, perhaps a special porridge sometimes. I am sure some died before their time because of being given chocolate or something else that we now know is harmful, but all in all, they seemed to flourish just fine. Our family pets started with a small male Cocker Spaniel named Monty – he was killed, when hit by a car, I remember Monty well, but not my reaction to his death. He was replaced almost immediately with another small Cocker Spaniel named Goldie. After having her for a couple of years my Dad got a Male Cocker Spaniel (I guess thinking he would breed them, but it never happened). His name was Toby, and was always kept tethered to a very long line in our yard. He could pretty well have the run of the large yard, but it was always a little sad that he had to be tethered. Goldie died after I left home and Toby had been given away (I think) to someone on a farm. I had a pet goat, a “Kid”. Our Uncle gave him to my sister (because she found him just after he was born – his Nanny had gone to an isolated part of the farm to give birth). My Sister was not too excited about it, so the “kid” became my pet. He had a shed that was about 8 feet high and he had to be tethered inside his fenced pen, because he could get out of pretty well anything. I have tried for years to remember what I had named him – and it bothers me that I cannot remember! I think ‘Stretch or Silver or Steve’! He left me with the unfortunate memory of losing a pet. I found him after school one day, his tether chain had gotten caught on the corner of his shed, and I assume he had jumped off like he always did, and his feet could not hit the ground. I am sure he died instantly as his neck had been broken – my reaction was to run. I ran through our yard (we lived on a couple of acres) and did a hip pity hop up the hill to our pump house – thinking that if I did that, he would not be dead. But he was – all the running and hip pity hoping would not bring him back! Any and all our pets that died, were buried on a hillside at the edge of our property and Silver or Steve or Stretch had his space. The shortest time I ever had a pet was when my Aunt had given me one of her cats. Living on a farm with my Grandpa and having a root cellar in the basement, she had many cats to keep the mice down. She let me pick my favorite – was a large fluffy black and white cat. My Dad put her into a box and in the trunk of our car and we drove home. I was so excited! My Dad opened the trunk and the cat shot out like a bullet – never to be seen again. My Dad looked for a long time, but to no avail. Now, my Dad was allergic to cats, was not a cat lover – so you never know exactly how tightly he put the lid on that box. I guess the two strangest pets we had were a Domestic Duck and a Pig. The Ducks name was Hewy and the pigs name was Scratchy – loved to be scratched behind his ears. I am not sure whatever happened to Hewy and I am sure we ate Scratchy. So – during my childhood I really only lost one pet that really bothered me and that was Steve/Silver/Stretch. I cannot say the same for the pets I and my family have lost since I left home, as each one of them Whiskey, Chootla and Sasha have left a void. We had a chance to say good bye to Whiskey and Chootla – Sasha did not give us that chance.  But, without a Vet, he would have left us years ago, so I am happy that we still do not have the attitude of the 40s and 50s, where you never took cats or dogs to the Vet – because with Sasha’s problems, the red ointment would never have helped.

         Dedicated to Sasha
  Sept 26, 2000 – Mar 1, 2011