DR GIBBONS

12-8-09...DR GIBBONS

The very first Dr I remember going to in my very young years was Dr Gibbons. Now he was quiet a sight. Very tall and kind of bent over with age probably. He had a lot of silver hair and a handle bar moustache. I remember thinking he had the longest feet I'd ever seen. He smoked a pipe and it hung out of his mouth the whole time. He never laid it down. Wonder what people would say about that now? I loved the smell of that pipe. When he got too old his Son stepped in and he also smoked a pipe.
I was scared out of my gourd of him. I mean shaking scared. His office was way up high. I don't know if it was second or third floor but I do know there was no elevator and it seemed like hundreds of steps up there. It was a very narrow passageway dark and musty. Hard to walk up there if you were well and almost impossible if you were sick. I remember my poor parents carrying me and Norman up those steep stairs and wonder how the heck they did it. As I look back I just can't conceive of me having to walk up there now. How in the world did older sick people manage?
Remember those big long sticks Dr's stuck down your throat to hold your tongue down? I hated those things. Every time Dr Gibbons came at me with one of them I'd start fighting his hand. He was gentle and calm with me and soothed me down but I still hated gagging on that thing. He looked at my throat, my ears, took my temp, and listened to my heart. Then he would go back in to a little room and rummage around for a while. I knew what he was doing and I knew what it meant for me. He had his own Pharmacy in the back as lots of Drs did then.
When he came out he always had the same three things, (at least thats how I remember it) There would be a small white envelope with tiny pink pills in it. A bottle with something pink and milky in it, and another bottle with red medicine in it. Then I would usually get a shot in my hip. OUCH! Usually said it was a cold. I never heard of the flu then. Hmmmmmm!
A girl my age had polio when she was very young. She wore a brace on one of her legs (Still does) and that leg looked like a stick to me. Very thin. I would look at it and I just kept thinking that Dr Gibbons would try to put one on my leg. Well by golly if he did I was going to fight him like a tiger. Girls wore dresses then, never pants, and the brace was there for all to see. I didn't want that and I wondered why my friend did want it.
It cost 5.00 to go to the Dr then and that included the medicine. My Goodness but things have sure changed now. YEP!