Just like it was yesterday
The doctor told my mother
They have to come out ma'am
They’re the worst I’ve ever seen
It’s true too—'cause I heard him say it myself
Kids remember bad things like that
Then he opened his desk drawer and pulled out a pipe
Filled it plumb full o' Prince Albert and lit it up
Right then I wanted a puff so bad I could almost taste it
The date for surgery was set—
Just like it was etched in gravestone granite
And there wasn't no changing it neither—no siree Bob
From the time the doctor said it
Till the day of reckonin'
My ears picked up on all the bad news about it—
This girl up the road almost bled to death
When they took hers out
Some five-year-old kid over in Milton died—
Never woke up once he was put out
The doctor across the hill from me took out my cousin’s
She’d been a goner without that oxygen he give her
There was a good chance I might get somethin’ bad
Since the date was set for August—polio season
My daddy went in with my sister
The day hers was took out
He said he’d never do that again
The blood a-gushin’ outta her mouth
Like somebody stickin' a pig on hog-killin' day
Doomsday arrived
'Cause it was etched in gravestone granite
I was laid to rest on a cold gurney
And wheeled into a long and dark hallway
For a last goodbye with my mama and papa
Then as I was delivered into this all-white room
I set straight up on that ol’ gurney thing
And screamed till I come a hair to throwin' up
For I knowed I would never see my parents again
I did ask 'em to promise me one thing for sure—
If I lived to make it it through everthing
I could eat all the hamburgers I wanted
Just like Wimpy!
©️Copyright 2022 By David Lee Thompson
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Sandie
It was 1951 when my twin and I were nine, that my parents thought it was time to stop all of the colds and other diseases that we got so much of by having our tonsils and adenoids taken out. We weren't alone in the hospital. Our dad, 29, joined us. But he also had a hemorrhoidectomy because driving truck on those buckboard seats had become unbearable.
When mom came to see if he had his surgery yet, he lied and told her he hadn't. But then, she saw the blood on his lips and knew that he was joking again bravely. It had been done without anesthesia.
All that I remember was that Roger and I were looking forward to all that ice cream. We were put under, and came out with only sore throats. We got a lot of oatmeal, graveyard stew (milquetoast) and ice cream for a couple of days. We still got lots of diseases like measles three times one year and Roger caught a fourth that I escaped.
Ron