Hospital again

This is another letter that was written on August 18, 1989 to someone in Cottage Hills, IL.

Well, it finally happened. I landed in the hospital. I didn't feel so bad at the time but Dr. Bagley had a look of concern on his face when kidney x-rays showed one of my kidneys was blocked. I spent almost two weeks in the hospital being poked, prodded, sticked, x-rayed, ultrasounded, EKG'd, stabbed, sliced and lithotripsied. I had five or six kidney stones. I had a follow-up x-ray a week ago and the doctor was relieved to see that there was quite an improvement, but one more stone left. Then I went yesterday for another round of lithotripsy to pulverize it. I stayed there overnight. Now I'm on the mend and taking it easy like I've been doing for the past month.

Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia is said to be the largest privately-owned teaching hospital in the country. Believe me, I saw enough students making rounds with their professors. The doctors and nurses do a pretty good job with all kinds of emergencies and ailments. It was interesting enough to me to almost wish I had studied medicine. As it is, I've learned thing while there, and the medical personnel were helpful when I asked questions. The human body in an intriguing machine. I have to go back for another x-ray on September 5 to see if this round was effective.

But then, I guess you don't really care to hear all the graphic details, do you? Actually, I didn't mind the hospital so much. But it was b-o-r-i-n-g. Each bed has a small TV and I rented it for nearly $4 a day and now I almost hate television. This last time I didn't even bother renting it, I just read a book, Speaking Out, by Larry Speakes, press secretary to the Reagan Administration, a very interesting book, if you like politics. He explains the Administration's side of so many issues, incidences and crises that came up in the Reagan Administration. He even worked in the Nixon Administration and went to bat for Nixon in the Watergate scandal until he realized that Nixon was guilty but covered it up. Speakes thought it would have been better for everyone if Nixon would have owned up to it and apologized. It would have kept him in the Presidency.

Reading is certainly better for a person than watching TV. I remember when I first became aware of reading. I was about five years old when I wished with all my heart that I could read. I'd pore over Look magazine and try to decipher those letters and groups of letters. But my parents were not the type to teach a kid more than potty training and good manners. Yes, Mom would read to us kids at bedtime, but it was more the droning voice that put one to sleep than the story. I was just itching to go to school to learn.

Because I was a sickly kid I was held back a year to wait for my brother Ron to be eligible for first grade. We marched in to education together and quickly learned our ABCs, and we shortly got our first softbound reading book and learned to read our first words: "Oh look! See Sally run!"

When we finally got hardbound books we proudly marched up to the stage to read aloud in turn, for the teacher. And by the end of the school year we could look a second grader in the eye as almost equals. But like in all groups of children, there have to be some who dominate and bully themselves through school. I was picked on at times so I quickly learned whom to avoid and who was work making friends with.

But kids are survivors. I survived. I lived to read more and more. My favorite pastime over the years was to peruse the shelves at the school library and read, read, read. No, I didn't read the entire book very often, but I checked out an awful lot of books while I was in Junior High. When a book was well written, I read it through. I picked on adventure books. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Bomba, the Jungle Boy, stories of the famous cowboys, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger. Tales of cowboys and Indians, undersea exploration, submarines, ships, airplanes—the list was endless and my imagination thrived on these tales. In the first few years of my life I never even saw a television set.

Radio did its part as an alternative to reading. It abounded in imaginative stories: Amos & Andy, The Shadow, the Lone Ranger, Gildersleeves, and a host of others. The sound effects and well spoken scripts took our imaginations into lofty heights.

Then along came television. I was enthralled. Now I could see Tarzan, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger in action, in living black-and-white. And there were countless other stories to titillate the mind, if not the imagination: Lassie, Cochise, Broken Arrow, Tales of Wells Fargo, Gunsmoke, Zorro, Amos & Andy, Kraft Theater, Sally Starr, cartoons and movies of all kinds. We didn't have a TV so we kids would sneak over to the neighbors for a steady diet of adventure, mystery, and intrigue—after the farm chores.

Now, in listening to some of the radio classics, I am amazed how well written the scripts were, designed to capture the imagination; writing which was quite eloquent compared to today's. Now that television has dominated people's lives, it appears that situations are more captivating than verbal content. Indeed, television is replete with badly constructed language.

So I still enjoy a well-written book. I still dapple in books, not always reading one through. Larry Speakes' book is one that I'll probably read through, it is that well written, although I did catch a lot of typographical errors.

Another book I read through was the biography of Gloria Swanson, which was extremely well written. Gloria Swanson? Yes, the movie actress back in the 20s and 30s. She was the major star of that time and she was Joseph Kennedy's mistress for awhile, Ted Kennedy's father, the rum-runner of the Prohibition period. Her story takes you from the silent era of movies to the talkies. A fascinating book.

As dry a book as it may seem, I read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring through when I was about 18 years old. It was not an adventure story, but it captured my interest in the way it was written.

I haven't read many of the classics of literature. I don't seem to have the patience to read like I'd like to. You may develop an appreciation for books after watching a movie like Fahrenheit 451, a futuristic story in which books were banned.

Talking about education, here's a joke I just read: The personnel department of a large supermarket chain hired a young man to work in one of its stores. He reported to work and the manager greeted him warmly and handed him a broom.

"Your first job is to sweep out this store," he told the young man.

"But I'm a college graduate," the man replied.

"Sorry, I didn't know that," said the manager. "Here, give me that broom and I'll demonstrate."

Well, I guess I've rambled on enough for now. I hope to go back to work soon. I miss it. The doctor said to not expect to go back to work until the middle of September.

Reminder, this letter was written in 1989.