1950s nursing

student forever · Nov 6, 2011

What fun this thread is!! I have no medical personnel on my side of the family, but my husband does.

My husband's grandfather was called DeeDoc (slang for "the doc"?); anyway, he started "doctoring" in 1930. They lived in a small rural farming community in East TN. He delivered over 2000 babies in his years and every one of them in the home. Don't recall ever hearing if he lost one. He got rations for gas and other supplies during the war (II) when no one else could.

He had a small building beside his house which was his office, about the size of a one car garage. When you entered the first room, there was a little pot-bellied stove and a few leather covered chairs. The next little room was a dentist's room where he did extractions, etc, and general care. The chair was also leather and had a foot pump, and the back could be adjusted to a reclining position of sorts. The third room back was the lab where he had test tubes lined up and counter top space, and all the necessary lab items.

He had passed away before I came into the family, and when we visited the farm one time we asked "Mother" (my husband's grandmother) to allow us to see D'Doc's office. She kept it locked all the time "becuause she hadn't cleaned it for quite some time". Mother was 88 at this time! One day she got aggravated that we kept on asking so she huffed off, got the keys, and took us over to the little building and opened the door! She had allowed grade school classes to go there for field trips for many years prior, and many little "souveniers" had been taken off, but there was enough still in there to get the jist of what was what.

I tried to convince them all to donate the building to the Smithsonian Institution, but they all said Naaaaaaah. They really had no idea how awesome was this little rural treasure! Mother's accounting books showed where a chicken or some garden produce had been payment for care.

That day Mother gave us D'Doc's "grip"- his black doctoring satchel - and our brother & his wife took the test tubes! We also got his framed Dr. Diploma. Treasured by us! Mother and D'Doc are both gone now. May the souls of the dearly departed rest in peace.