Kids
We were
plagued by out of control hormones and made babies which was fun. O
ur kids cost $300.00 each at Greenville Hospital without quantity discounts -- 5 children set us back $1500.00 – those were the old fashioned days. The doctor didn't charge much for delivery and some didn't charge anything.
And we were fortunate, moving to Brookville, to find Doctor Thomas. His waiting room was a Ripley's Believe it or Not with clouds of smoke, babies coughing, and mothers changing poopy diapers on the floor. People loved him for his poetry and $5 or $6 per visit charge. He seldom wrote prescriptions but gave you a bag of his medicine, shots if needed, and charcoal pills that seemed a cure everything.
Dr. Thomas did not charge to deliver babies if you didn't have a job. You could charge doctor visits and he never sent out reminders. Everyone smoked in those days and he was no exception. He smoked Marlboro and his ashtrays were filled with snuffed out cigarettes and there was always one burning in the ashtray he used to light another.
If you needed a shot in the neck, he would tell you to face the wall and the needle was stuck in your neck. He once took a round dowel rod and shoved one end in a pencil sharpener to make it sharp and dipped it in some medicine and shoved it into a mole on the back of my leg and worked it around. Hurt? Yes.
But I hasten to add that I never had another neck problem and the mole never came back.
