When my dad was practicing medicine, sometimes there would be patients who had no insurance, and they could not pay their bill. In some instances, they would give my dad other items in lieu of payment. It was RARELY his choice, except maybe once a man who cut trees. The best exception was a man who gave a millstone, which became the hearth in our one-room cabin. Mostly it was what the patients delivered to our home, unannounced, a lot of times during family dinner. Some that I remember are these.
A gigantic, long horse trailer which could hold two to three horses. That guy must have owed a LOT! I remember the day he delivered it, resembling a long skinny airstream trailer, with faux wood siding? The best part waszzzzz…we had NO horses to put into it! It took up a lot of space in the garden, what are we gonna do with this clunker? I suppose? It was my dad’s idea to pull it behind our family station wagon when we went to St. Simon’s for a week’s family vacation. “We can put all of our bicycles in there! The canoe! Our suitcases, a croquet set, a grill? Maybe other things?” In no time, our family of six filled it up; then loaded our Ford station wagon, a tan and white six-seater with this seating chart. Dad, the driver; Mother, front passenger-navigator (remember PAPER maps!) I sat behind Mother, and Jud sat behind Dad; we were on a bench seat. Bill and Gene faced each other on two side benches in the way back, with knees almost interlocking. We got on our way, pulling the horse trailer (without a CDL or a tag on it). It was July, very HOT, so we were running the air conditioner ‘full steam ahead’. In those days, in the 1950s, there was only one A/C vent in the front, in between the driver and passenger. Our parents were frozen from the proximity to the vent. My brother and I in the middle seats had the perfect temperature. The two younger ones were burning up, since NO air made it that far back, a long way. We were going through the tall pines, (pulp industry) between Dublin and Jesup in that LONG deserted piney-wooded stretch before getting to Brunswick. When ‘bang’ the engine stopped! (Think about the extra weight of the horse trailer, plus our A/C usage.) Our cold air stopped, and we had to pull over, get out of the car. Remember NO cell phones! I remember standing by the side of the road, being afraid, I was 12. Maybe? A trucker stopped to help us, get a wrecker, get a car repair man, get the correct part to repair it; repair it three hours later, so we could proceed, but this time WITHOUT air conditioning, still pulling the heavy horse trailer. Btw, we were not allowed to ride in it, as much as we wanted to.
One day I walked into the kitchen to see a five-gallon glass bottle of clear velvety liquid sitting on top of the stove; it had just been delivered by a patient in lieu of payment. Right after I saw it, Cholly Harris walked in, and his eyes grew wide and he muttered something, smilingly, about it… “My... oh... my... that’s some fine moonshine there!” That’s when I realized what it was! Moonshine! I knew it was contraband, and I could not comprehend seeing that HUGE amount of it, as it looked like a lifetime supply of a spirit! That would make about 80 Mason jars worth (isn’t that what moonshine is usually in?). I think that the man who delivered that was very proud of his handiwork! LOTS of friends received moonshine for Christmas!
One day, a man showed up at the office with a ginormous cabbage, which completely filled up the back of a pickup truck. It must have impressed my dad, a gardener, because he shouted to Royeese, his surgical nurse, “Take 100 dollars off of his bill!” She was surprised, questioning his math, “100?” “Doc, that’s an awfully expensive cabbage!”
Once, he was called on a house call way out in the country for a baby delivery. The baby was born prematurely, and when it was born; while Dad was trying to save the mother, the dog tried to eat the baby! QUICKLY they put it in a shoebox for safety; amazingly the baby survived, and she named him Prince Jordan, in honor of our dad.
Since he made house calls, sometimes he would take us with him, as it was a long drive at night, he wanted our company? My brother and I were in the back seat, and we were arguing about something, he warned us to stop fighting, but we did not. Then he abruptly stopped the car and made us get out! In winter, no coats. We had to walk around, cooling our heels until his house call was complete 20 minutes later. He picked us up from the street; we silently got in the car, did not say a word until we get home, when we tore into the house, “Mother, you won’t BELIEVE what Dad did to us!!!” I still remember that street.
These events took place a long time ago and would surely NOT take place today!
Carol Veliotis is a local columnist for The Covington News. She can be reached at carol.veliotis@gmail.com.
