Francis Donovan
Thomaston Conn.,
Thursday, Dec. 29, 1938 {Begin deleted text}{Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} Mr. MacCurrie has found a listener who{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}has heard nothing of his hospital experience, and he is making the most of it. The newcomer is a Mr. Gilpin, employe of the Clock Company, which this week is shut down for its annual inventory period. It develops, however, that Mr. Gilpin has had an operation of his own, and he is anxious to let us in on the details. The result is that while one hold the floor, the other with an impatience which there is no attempt to conceal, waits{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}[??]{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}his turn to expatiate on his{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}[???]{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}surgical ordeal. Both have a notably low opinion of hospitals and doctors. {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} Mr MacCurrie: "They give you dom little service in the compensation{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}word. They know they'll get the money so why should the bother with{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}you. Of course some of the nurses are all right. I got along good with most of them, but some I didn't{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}take to and some didn't take to me. I never said nothin' to any of them. I used to wait until the charge nurse came around and I'd tell {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}/{End handwritten}{End inserted text} her. I'm the kind of a man that speaks his mind. Now when they{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}[???]{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}was takin' me down for X-ray-----" {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} Mr. Gilpin: "Them X-rays are a{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} {Begin deleted text}lot of baloney. They take them just to put extra money on your bill. Now when I was there.. " {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} Mr. MacCurrie: "I wasn't payin' the bill."{End deleted text} {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} Mr. Gilpin: "Well, somebody was. Now when I went down, you know I had a kidney stone. They wanted to X-ray me right away. I said Nosir, you're not goin' to X-ray me. I said I was down here five years ago and had an X-ray and it showed where that stone was. The doctor knows where that stone is, I said. I don't need {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}no{End handwritten}{End inserted text} X-ray.
"Well, [it?] turned out that I was right. They got some new kind of a machine now, they can tell without an X-ray. The doctor said I didn't {Begin page no. 2}{Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} have to stay there at all. He said I could take the treatments right in his office. So that's {Begin deleted text}[??]{End deleted text} what I did. And I want to tell you they were painful. They were so painful." {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} Mr. MacCurrie: "You don't have to tell me a dom thing aboot pain. When I was doon there with me broken {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} leg I suffered plenty. It was all right takin' me oot to the {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} X-ray machine, because they slid me on from the good side, but takin' me off was another matter. Every move the made I felt like there was a knife stickin' in me." {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} Mr. Gilpin: "Them and their {Begin deleted text}[??]{End deleted text} X-rays. When I took my wife down it was on a Wednesday. We knew she didn't have a chance to live. She had a heart condition. She died {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} the following Sunday. {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} We took her in, and the doctor said she was dyin' and the only thing they could do for her was to give her absolute rest.
"He said he'd like to take an {Begin deleted text}[??]{End deleted text} X-ray, but they didn't dare move her. Well, I come down the next night {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} to see her she wasn't in the room. I says to the nurse, 'Where is she?' And she says, 'Down for X-ray.' I was goddamn mad I tell you. {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} "When they brought her {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} back I went to the doctor and I says, 'I thought you said she was in no condition to be moved. Now I find you takin' her down for X-rays. What's the idea?' I was {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} mad. 'The only reason I can {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} see for it is that you want to put an extra ten of fifteen dollars on my bill,' I says. 'You endanger my wife's life just to put an extra ten dollars on the bill.' He couldn't give me an answer. {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} After she died they came to me and they said they'd {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}/{End handwritten}{End inserted text} like to perform a post mortem. I says nothin' {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} doin'. I says you won't put a knife to her body while I have anything to say about it. " {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} Mr. MacCurrie: "They can't do it with [ooot?] they ask you. I remember..." {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} Mr. Gilpin: "And when it come time to pay the bill I says to them: 'I'll pay your bill,' I says: 'but you needn't put that ten dollars or {Begin page no. 3}whatever it is for that X-ray on there ' I won't pay it,' I says. {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} Mr. MacCurrie: "Those goddom doctors have an eye for a dollar. When the wards started {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} to thin oot doon there, they used to call them all together and tell 'em they better bring some patients in if they expected to keep the place runnin'. {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} "They're all hungry for money. Even this fella here, he's a good doctor I'll give him credit, but he's for the insurance companies every time. Stopped my compensation b'Cod {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} the day I left the hospital. " {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} Mr. Gilpin: "There was a fella down there for a prostate gland operation...." {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} Mr. MacCurrie: "That's what old George Anderson had. They gave him the first one--you know they have to do it in two operations--and they had to wait so long for the second, he got disgusted and went home. Somethin' happened, it healed wrong or somethin', {Begin deleted text}[??]{End deleted text} anyway they couldn't give him the second one on time, and the wouldn't wait any longer. He's home now, and feelin' pretty good. {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} "As a matter of fact," Mr MacCurrie {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} says, reaching for his {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} overcoat, "I'm goin' over to see him now. I knew him over in the old country." He sits down to draw on his rubbers. "Paper says snow tonight." {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} After he has gone Mr. Gilpin lights a cigarette, looks out the window for a while in silence. Then he says, pointing to a passerby: {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} "There's a man who could have been sitting pretty today if he {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} hadn't tried to make a fortune in stock. He had enough to retire on fifteen years ago. Ran one of the busiest stores in this town for years, when {Begin inserted text}times were{End inserted text} {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} good But he wasn't satisfied, he wanted to be a millionaire. Now look at him. He's workin' seven days a week in his old age, when he ought to be takin' it easy.
"Why {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten},{End handwritten}{End inserted text} when he was runnin' his place here, local merchants were {Begin page no. 4}all making money. It was too damn much {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} trouble to buy out of town. Now they all go to Waterbury or other cities. The trolley comin' in, that was what started to {Begin deleted text}[??]{End deleted text} make it tough for local merchants. {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} "When they first put the trolleys in here, they were runnin' 'em every fifteen minutes, then every half hour. And they were all crowded, too. Then they started runnin' every hour. People got in the habit of goin' out of town to buy {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} "John [Ginard use to?] run a five and ten cent store here. Only everything he sold cost more than five or ten cents. People knew they were payin' too much for stuff, but they didn't have no other way of gettin' it outside takin' a train to Waterbury, and that was too much trouble. The trolleys {Begin deleted text}[??]{End deleted text} put John out of business. {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} "Now those goddamn {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} buses, they're worse than nothin' at all. Why is it he people always get the dirty end of it, young fella, do you know? As soon as a transportation company starts losin' money they do just what they damn {Begin deleted text}[??]{End deleted text} please with their schedules and it don't make any difference whether the patrons suffer or not. {Begin inserted text}{Begin handwritten}({End handwritten}{End inserted text} "But when they're makin' money, just try to cut in on their franchise. A bunch of local boys tried runnin' buses to Waterbury years ago in [opposition?] to the trolleys. They got through one morning when the trolleys {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} couldn't run on account of the snow. But what happened? The Public Utilities commission made {Begin deleted text}[?]{End deleted text} ordered them to stop runnin' in competition with the trolley company.
"And that's the way it goes. Yessir, that's the way it goes."