1936, Summer............
Memorial Hospital, the summer of 1936.
As soon as my father was sure that I was being looked after, he got on the phone to Radio City Music Hall, in New York City, and had my uncle, Dr Henry Crawford, paged. When Uncle Henry came to the phone, dad explained what had happened to me, and said please help. Uncle Henry grabbed the speaker's mike and called out 5 names, and told them to report to the front entrance where a limo and a police escort was waiting to get them as fast as possible to the hospital, some 20 miles away. On the way he explained what had happened to me and they all volunteered to help. It seems that the meeting in New York was a symposium of the finest burn treatment specialists in the country to discuss and learn what had been learned over the past few years, and these 5 were the top Doctors in the country at the time. When they showed up, I was still on the dissecting table, where I was going to spend the next several days, while they sprayed me with disinfectant, and pulled the blacken and charred skin from my body while I continued to scream at the top of my lungs. We must have been in the Morgue so that my screams would not disturb the other patients, and that's why I was on a dissecting table.In between these episodes, I was swathed in soft bandages coated thickly with Vaseline, and potassium permanganate, which turned me purple. My bed, nurses and room all turned purple, and I was referred to as the purple kid. This situation lasted several weeks, there were no visitors allowed, except my mom and dad, who had to go through a surgical scrub, and gown up, before entering my purple abode, and then only if I was not screaming. You see Uncle Henry would not allow them to sedate me, because the dosage required would turn me into an addict, for the rest of my life. So I just had to tough my way through it. The constant screaming had 2 lasting effects, My voice is so loud and commanding, that I could march 4 companies of troops around a stadium, from the upper reaches of the stands. Many years later, I was able to communicate to the ground, at the site of an air crash, from the small air vent in the pilot's side window from 1500 ft over head.About the 4th month I was able to receive visitors, the mayor, fire chief, and my friend, George came in to see me regularly. I was stuck in bed, I couldn't walk, and my left hand seemed frozen on my chest, just below my throat, I was unable to move the shoulder, elbow, or wrist. The build up of scar tissue and webbing prevented it. One day, I had a wonderful surprise, there was a scratching at the room door, and when it was opened, in bounded Teddy, paws on the bed, licking my face, He smelled of antiseptic. I found out later that he had been through a full hospital scrub, to make sure I would not get infected. I remembered this years later when reading Mr. Gutterman's poem, The antiseptic Baby, and the prophylactic pup "The antiseptic baby and the prophylactic weird pup were playing in the garden, when the bunny gambled up" I couldn't even pat Teddy, but he sure made me feel like I might survive. I sure looked weird; a huge splashed tomato covered my whole left side. The picture of a lion's head was on the inside of my upper left arm, and a huge blood red three dimensional snake ran all down the outside of my left arm, ending in a 1/4 " viper head 2"wide on the back of my left hand. After 9 months, I was allowed to go home, where Teddy promptly made me bleed, the skin on my left side and arm, just wasn't string enough to take Teddy's roughhouse, Teddy learned to be more careful. Now my rehabilitation would start I was Alive, and Home, I had survived a 90% fatal burn and I'm Alive.Three month's of hard work, and rehabilitation worked it's magic, and Uncle Henry decided I was well enough to go to the summer place on Squam Lake. So in June we all drove up, but this time to My grand father Crawford's place on Sunset point, just across from the residence of his father in law, a country Doctor. If you have ever seen the movie, On Golden Pond, you have visited this house, because, it was the house used to make the film. As you look from the dock, the point to the right is Sunset point.
