Transcript of interview with Dorothy George by Claytee White, October 13, 2003

An Interview with Dorothy George An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University Nevada, Las Vegas 2007 ©The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2007 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV — University Libraries Director and Editor: Claytee D. White Interviewers and Project Assistants: Suzanne Becker, Nancy Hardy, Joyce Moore, Andres Moses, Laura Plowman, Emily Powers, Dr. Dave Schwartz 11 Recorded interviews and transcripts composing the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project have been made possible through the generosity of Dr. Harold Boyer and the Libraries Advisory Board. Lied Library provided a wide variety of administrative services and the Special Collection Department, home of the Oral History Research Center, provided advice, archival expertise and interviewers. The Oral History Research Center enabled students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. Participants in this project thank the University of Nevada Las Vegas for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcripts received minimal editing. These measures include the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Additional transcripts may be found under that series title. Claytee D. White, Project Director Director, Oral History Research Center University of Nevada Las Vegas • • • 111 ORAL HISTORY RESEARCH CENTER OF UNLV The Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project Use Agreement Name of interviewer Name of Narrator: e Geo /i <3. £ We, the above named, give to the Oral History Research Center of UNLV the tape recorded interview(s) initiated on id j3> ddc3 as an unrestricted gift, to be used for such scholarly and educational uses as shall be determined, and transfer to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, legal title and all literary property rights including copyright. This gift does not preclude the right of the interviewer, as a representative of UNLV, to use the recordings and related materials for scholarly uses. There will be no compensation for any interviews. Address of narrator Library Special Collections 4505 Maryland Parkway, Box 457010, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-7010 (702)895-2222 Preface After serving as a nurse in World War II in Hawaii, Okinawa and Japan, Dorothy returned home to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. She experienced a particularly bad winter and she set out for California but stopped in Las Vegas to visit the family of her traveling companion, a girlfriend from her home town. The girlfriend returned to Wisconsin and George applied for a nursing license and got it within three days. She never left. Dorothy met her husband while working the night shift at Clark County Hospital. He would come in regularly to assist his patients in the births of their babies. Their occupations and their service in World War II drew them together in a marriage that has lasted over fifty years. From 1949 to this interview in 2003, Dorothy George has seen Las Vegas grow from a town that she loved to a metropolitan area that is no longer as friendly. She reminisces about the Heldorado parades, family picnics at Mount Charleston, watching the cloud formed by the atomic bomb tests, raising six successful children, leading a Girl Scout Troop, and working in organizations to improve the social and civic life of Las Vegas. This is Claytee White and today is the 13 th of October, 2003 and I'm in the home of Mrs. Dorothy George. How are you this afternoon? Just fine thank you. Good As you know we are here today to record your memories of early Las Vegas. But first would you tell me please your parents' names. Where did you grow up? My father's name was John O'Donnell. My mother's name was Margaret O'Donnell and I grew up in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. How long did you live there? 1 lived there until 1 was about 18 I guess. I graduated from high school then 1 went to the University of Wisconsin and from there I went to Rochester, Minnesota to St. Mary's Hospital and became an RN [Registered Nurse]. How many sisters and brothers do you have? I had eleven sisters and brothers. I had four brothers and seven sisters. Three of them passed away shortly after birth, so I grew up with nine, with eight, eight siblings. Tell me what life was like in you home town, what kind of recreation you had, the size of the town, just a little bit about your growing up. # A very small town. It was about 10,000 people. 1 grew up on a farm, and I lived there until I left home. Our recreation was made up of what we made for ourselves, games that we played and wintertime we skated, things like that. Do we still skate? Excuse me? Do you still skate? * No 1 don't. 2 When you went away to college, did you major in nursing from the beginning? More or less. I went there to go into nursing but I didn't care about the university hospital, the fact that it was so big and, and it was so impersonal, so I went into, my uncle was a professor of English there and I went into it when I was, it was what he wanted me to do. So which languages do you speak? » At that time French and I did a little bit of Spanish but I didn't stick with it long enough to speak it very well or anything like that. But then you decided to continue in the nursing career? That's what I always wanted was nursing. So how did you go about that? My uncle unfortunately was killed in an automobile accident. After he was gone, I transferred to St. Mary's Hospital and took nursing at that time. And you became an RN? Yes. Okay. At that point, did you leave that area of the country, to move here? No. After 1 was finished with graduated from nurses training, the war was on and I became an Army nurse. Give me your date of birth. November 6, 1921. So you became an army nurse. That's right. Good. So tell me about that experience. You were already an RN? Yes. 3 Did you have to go through basic training? Oh you bet. So what was that like? It was fun. (chuckle) We didn't do very much. We were there about three months I think and then we were sent overseas. Where was that? Where was the basic training? At Carson Colorado, Camp Carson Colorado. At that time what did the average American, the ladies that you were in training with, you were in their sisterhood, what did they think of the war and America entering the war? Of course they wanted, they were for our entry and many of them joined the services and I would say probably 75 % of our class went into the military. Wow. That's great Tell me about, did you have any experience with war bonds? I recall the war bonds but I didn't ever buy any, but I do remember the programs that they had and the actors and actresses and so forth that had programs about them and re-visitations and that sort of thing So tell me about your first assignment overseas. Well I went to Hawaii first. We left America on a hospital ship, and went to Hawaii and took jungle training there and then went to the middle of the jungle somewhere. That was because we were going on forward and then we went to Guam where we stopped in town for a short time and then on to Okinawa and that's where we lived through the war. Tell me what jungle training was like. It was mainly tramping through the woods through the jungle through the water trying to hide out in places and that sort of thing. 4 Did you have some kind of a pack on your back? What kind of clothing did you wear? We wore fatigues. Army fatigues and boots, and yes we did carry a pack and we carried a rifle with us. So now in basic training, did they teach you how to fire a rifle? Yes they did. So go ahead and tell me about Okinawa and what that was like. Were Americans occupying the island by the time you arrived? Yes. So tell me about that experience, what your day to day life was like. Well we were on the field where the war was taking place and then of course taking care of the soldiers as they were injured and so forth. And after that we moved back into the island at a hospital that was like a M.A.S.H. [Mobile Army Surgical Hospital] unit. And I had charge of an orthopedic ward on the island and 1 took care of orthopedics and stuff like that for the soldiers. We had a tent. We had about twenty beds to a tent and we worked pretty much a shift, a ten hour shift in the hospital. When you were in the field, that's where the tent was? The tent was back away from the actual fighting field. The tents were a ways away from the field. / see. When did you go back to a regular hospital? When the war was over in 1945. But not until then? No, then 1 went to, with the Army of Occupation I went to Japan. 5 But before that, the most, the major medical facility in Okinawa was then like a M.A.S.H. unit? Yes, uh huh. There were no buildings. They were all tents. After watching a show like M.TA.. S.HV. for years, how close to the truth is that? To the truth, to the way it really was? The way the war was being fought? Right. When you worked in that M.A.S.H unit as a nurse, was it similar to what we saw on television? Similar to it yes. It was not as much fun. (big laugh) I can imagine! So what did you do for entertainment in that kind of a unit? They had movies which were shown outdoors. They had a big sort of an arena like and we sat on the side of the hill watched the movie from there and we had a few parties under the tent, the hall. But mostly we played cards, when we had a chance we did our reading, that sort of thing I see. How dangerous was it? Well at first it was very dangerous. When the war was on but after, when the war was over of course it was not dangerous really. So where the nurses were, you were really close to the action? Yes, uh huh. We were, at first, when I first went over. But then we lived in what they called a nurse's compound which was fenced and we had tents that we slept in. Big long tents. And we were pretty secure there because we had guards around us all the time and I don't remember ever being afraid. Now were you called WAC/Women'sArmy Corps] or WA VE / Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services] or.... 6 Just Army nurse. Just an Army nurse. A lieutenant. Did you go in as a lieutenant? Yes, uh huh. Nurses went in as lieutenants. That's because you already had a four-year college degree? Right. You re a second lieutenant when you go in; by the time 1 came out I was a first lieutenant. Do you remember what the pay was like for women in the military at that time? I don t really recall how much we got. It wasn't a great deal but we didn't keep any of it because there wasn t any place to spend it and our checks were sent home to a bank at home and so we had it when we got out. But we had a few dollars we kept out. If you smoked, cigarettes were a nickel a package and you could buy beer occasionally. Of course I didn't drink so I gave it away to somebody else. There wasn't a great deal of anything to do except we would lie, you know the tents were on, were right on the China Sea or just a short back from the China Sea. So we could go sit on the beach and watch the water come in, the waves come in. Our unit was all destroyed when we had a major typhoon before we left for Japan. What do you mean it was completely destroyed? All washed up. We had to.... Were you on the island at the time? Yes. We went up the, we had to take the patients down from the, if they were in traction, that sort of thing we took them down and put casts on them and took them up to the caves on the side of the hill, 'cause the water was so, it was a very severe, like a tsunami almost. Waves came in 7 and they were just enormous and we stayed up in the caves on the side of the hill until, until the storm faded, then we went back to see what was left and there wasn't anything left. Did you ever think about writing a book? I don't know how to write a book. (Chuckle) Now what's that assignment, how long were you on Okinawa? Until December I think. Around December of'46, '45 [1946, 1945] I'm sorry. And you were sent there in which year? In the summer of '45. Oh so you were only there for a few months? On Okinawa, uh huh. And then went to Japan with the Army of Occupation. Oh good! Tell me about the occupation of Japan. Now you weren't near Nagasaki or... We weren't too far from where the bomb had fallen, but this was after the bombing. We had a general hospital in Osaka and we went to Japan by way of ship and went to Korea. Landed at Seoul, Seoul, Korea. We were there about three days. And then went on into Osaka, landed at Yokihama and took a train near down to Osaka. Now was Osaka occupied by American troops? Yes. Only American troops? Were there other troops from other countries? No. Just American troops. So tell me what that was like living there with an occupation and how were the Japanese people treated? As far as what our treatment of them? Urn, we had no real problem with them, because we were trying to be friends at that point and the hospital that I worked in had been a Red Cross hospital 8 in Osaka. But they had to restore all the plumbing and electricity and so forth, when they knew we were coming in, so that it would be useable, so that all had to be replaced by Americans, soldiers. Now who were your patients in Osaka? Wounded patients. American soldiers? American soldiers uh huh. Occasionally we had Japanese individuals who needed hospitalization, who needed treatment that they were not able to provide. And that was provided with no problems? Right. No problems at all. We actually became friends with them and were invited to their homes afterwards for tea and so forth. I think we became friends with the majority of the people within the short time we were there. Was there a language problem? Yes. We would have to know a few words that we learned because none of us spoke Japanese. We didn't, it didn't seem to be a real problem. Speaking of being an occupying force, we are doing the same thing right now in Iraq. Right. What do you think, ifyou knew people right now who have to go there to be part of the Americans to occupy it, what kind of advice would you give them? In Iraq? Uh huh. Being an occupying force like you were. I don't believe it's even comparable because we weren't, there was no fighting in Japan at the time and where there is in Iraq and I think from my stand point, we didn't have the problems that 9 they have over there and though the people were still stung by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the bombing there. I saw the area and we were able to travel down there and see the area. Where the bomb had been dropped? Mmm hmm What about the radio- active particles in the air? It didn t even bother us. It was never discussed. I mean we weren't told we couldn't go there but we just took jeeps and drove down there and as we toured the area and we went past there but 3.... Tell me what it looked like. Like a big hole in the ground, a big huge area of devastation. It wasn't a very pretty sight but we all knew that had it not been done we would have been going into Japan not as an army of occupation, but as an army and we would probably not be here today. We had to do that because they were pretty well dug in along the coast and in caves and so forth. Going in there by ship would not have been easy. How did your parents and your siblings back here feel about you being over there? Even in Okinawa. How did they feel? My father was, didn't want me to go at all, period, course he didn't want me to go to college either. He preferred I stay on the farm, but that was what farmers did in those days. People stayed and so he was not in favor of me going but I.... How did your mother feel about it? I think she would have preferred that I not go also but she didn't speak her peace very much like my dad did. (Chuckle) It was more Dad that didn't want me to go. Did you have siblings who stayed on the farm? 10 For a short time one of my brothers stayed on the farm. He was the only one who did. The rest of them married and had families and they didn't a One of my brothers was in the service. The one that actually stayed on the farm was in the service for a short time but not very long. Getting back to Osaka; how long were you there total? 1 went in let s see, we went clear in December of '45, and I left in August of '46. Okay, so about six or seven months. What were the living quarters like there? We lived in part of what had been the hospital. It was a cement building and we had bedrooms and so forth, army beds, it was civilized. Is there anything, any stories or anything else that you'd like to tell me about either Okinawa or Japan? I think on Okinawa after the war was over, we made friends with the Okinawan people, some of them were of course not friendly but the majority of them that I met were very friendly, easy to talk to and a I learned to swim in Okinawa. I don't swim very well but the China Sea was right there and we were able to have some time off there on the beach swimming and so forth. Any free time in Japan? Oh yes. We had a lot of free time. We had worked eight hour days and we had time to travel around and visit various places in Japan. We went and spent some time up in Tokyo. On days off we could take the train up and go to Tokyo and stay with the troops up there. They had bases and Tokyo is a beautiful city. Loved it. Love to visit it. I would like to go back and see what it is like today. So at the end of the occupation in August, you were released and did you return to the United States at that time? Yes I did. 11 And where were you stationed? I went out of the military at that time. Okay so that's when you left the military. Yes, uh huh. What was your entire time in the military? About a year and a half. So you didn t have to do a minimum of two years, a minimum of three years? No, not all. After I graduated from training at that time, civilian workers were frozen in their jobs because so many had gone they didn't want to deplete the nursing profession in the hospitals and that was why, in order to leave the hospital where you worked, you almost had to join the military to be released. So where did you go when you returned? The day after I came back, after I was released from the military, 1 went back to my home and I had a job waiting for me at the hospital. (Chuckle) It was a Catholic hospital and my older sister was a nun and belonged to that order of the sisters that ran the hospital. Our father had promised the superior that I would be able to come to work when I got back. He didn't ask me; he just told me. (Chuckle) So of course you I went to work. They were very short of nurses and they had a baby boom about that time and they needed nurses in the nursery and so I went to work in the nursery at the hospital. Now after working in the orthopedic department and then going into the pediatrics, how did you like that difference? 12 * difference! (Chuckle) But I love babies and so it was, the nursing care of babies of course - me different but I had training at the hospital. I trained with the infants. I didn't have a 1 cm taking care of them. \*>\ ou must have been at that hospital, this is '46 [1946], so you must have been there for about 2 years? n there in September of '46 and then left in February of'48. So about a year and a half. 1 ou left there to come to Las Vegas? left there to go to California. Oh, okay tell me about that; well tell me why you left the hospital. I lelt, actually I left my home town because I had been out i n t h e South where it is nice and warm d the w inters are very cold and that was a particularly bad winter. It was an icy winter and my me town is built on three hills and I lived on one hill and the hospital was on another hill and u couldn't, because of the ice, cars couldn't go up and down so I had to walk to work. H hat kind of hills are we talking about? How high are these hills? A ell t h e y ' r e q u i t e high. I d o n ' t know t h e height o f one but t h e y ' r e not l i k e mountains but hey 're hard to get up and down. How did you walk? Was there a sidewalk, a pavement or 1 iere were sidewalks but the sidewalks were icy too so we walked on the side of the sidewalk in snow and grass and the ice and then through the downtown and then up the other hill so I uin t want to spend my life doing that. I don 7 blame you at all. So you decided to go to Los Angeles? her nurse and I decided to leave the hospital and go to California. I had written to < .fornia for my nurse's license to practice in California and it was very difficult to get a California license at that time. Always had been. You had to wait quite a while for it to be approved. Did you have to take a test? No I didn t. Just send my credentials. By the time we left Chippewa, we had not gotten our license yet. We came out by train. The nurse I traveled with; her cousin was here as a pharmacist. In California? No here in Las Vegas, so we stopped to visit with him, he and his family. What was the name of that family? King. Elliott King. They needed, since I didn't have a licenses for California and they needed nurses here, I decided while I waited for my license I would work here and then go on as soon as I got my license. Well it took about three days to get a Nevada license. It was very quick. What about the friend that you were traveling with? Did she do the same? No she went back to Wisconsin. She didn't, she couldn't, I went to work at, first I went out at Rose de Lima Hospital but I had to take the bus. I didn't have a car. I didn't drive a car at that time. The bus left, my shift was three to eleven. The bus left at 2 o'clock. That was the time for discharge from the hospital was 2 o'clock in the afternoon. If I would get out to the hospital and they had discharged a lot of patients, then they didn't need me that day. I would have to take the bus back to Vegas. How far was the hospital out? Fifty miles. Which hospital was that? 14 A Rose de Lima. In where? In Henderson. Oh in Henderson, yes. At that time, the only hospitals here were, was Clark County Hospital and Las Vegas Hospital. Those were the only places to work. Mary Kennedy was the supervisor of nurses that was at Clark County Hospital and she had a spot for me in the O.B. [Obstetrics] ward, in the nursery. $ So how long did you have to stay at Henderson? You mean till the bus came back? No, how long did you work there? Oh, a week. Not very long. Oh that's good. I got a job at county. 1 could work every day at Clark County Hospital. Wonderful. I had to have money to live on. And who did you live with? 1 lived with her. We first had an apartment and then when she decided she didn't like working on the ward that she was put on, part time, and she wanted a day shift and of course there weren't any day shifts available, me I didn't care. I'd work nights. (Chuckle) And so that broke up our relationship. But she went home? She went back to Wisconsin. To those cold winters. 15 To those cold winters. So tell me what it was like at Clark County Hospital. Very different from hospitals I had worked in. Very small. The O.B. ward I think had probably 25 beds or more. It had a four bed ward and we had two bed rooms and part of it wasn't even 25 because we had the nursery there also, and the delivery rooms and so forth. I worked nights in the nursery and I also worked nights back in the delivery room because we only had two nurses at night and 1 took care of the nursery and the delivery room and the floor. Eventually another nurse came to do the nursery at night and I worked in the delivery rooms. Is this where you met your husband? Um huh. Tell me about that. He did a lot of deliveries at the time working for the county hospital. He did a lot of maternity cases, deliveries of course, there were a lot of deliveries at night. He was always very dedicated to the patients who were broke when they came in to deliver, he would be there. If it took six hours or whatever, he stayed with the people. Tell me about them. There were a lot of blacks. (Chuckle) Visiting, talking and so forth. So when did you get married? In October of 1950. And where is you husband from? (Unintelligible response) How did he get to Las Vegas? 16 It s funny but the same way. He came out of the military. He was in Air Force and he was on his way to California also and stopped here. He was on the train also. In those days when the tiain came through they had to stop and put coal in because the engines up over the pass and so they were here a few hours and he went over to a hotel and one of the bell hops there noticed the caduceus on his uniform and asked him if he was gonna stay here to practice medicine and he said he was on his way to California. He talked him into staying a few days because they needed doctors here so badly. A bellhop! A bellhop. Uh huh. So he stayed at the hotel for three days and he went down to the drug store and actually talked to the pharmacist who was the one I, my friend came was with. (Chuckle) So that last name was King? King. Elliott King. He talked to him and he told him that they needed doctors very badly. So he decided to stay a few more days and look around. That's why he stayed here. He didn't ever get to California. AW tell me, in 1948 when you arrived, tell me what the town looked like. The town was actually pretty wonderful. I arrived here and everybody was wearing shorts and sandals and I had my winter clothes (shared big laughs), because I had come from white north. That's right because it was in February. It was February, right. But it was a warm February, a beautiful February. Small town, small western town. The population was between 12, 15 thousand at the time. I loved it. It was the size town that 1 liked and you got to know people and you walked down the street and everybody knew you and you knew everybody. It was time to settle down. Watching some of the old westerns on T. V, I know it's 194S but did we still have any, when you think about the gambling that was downtown at the time, did it make you think of those old western shows that you see on T. V.? Somewhat but not the same as Gunsmoke or anything like that, (chuckle), but it was, it definitely was western. It was, the people were gambling but there weren't any balconies or gunshots. (Chuckle) You mentioned earlier that you liked the size. What do you think about today's size? Terrible. (Chuckle) I don t like it at all. I still like living here but I don't like the size of the town. I don t like what s happened to all of our water prices and all the other utilities and things that have had to try and grow and to keep up with everybody that was here and I don't criticize because they can t do everything everybody wants them to do. I actually think they do a tremendous job, considering what they have to deal with. 1 think you 're right. Being at the hospital at this time and getting to know people here in Las Vegas, did you join any organizations? 1 joined the Nurses Association. Eventually I joined activities at my church. The Women's Guild. Which church? Our Lady of Las Vegas. At that time of course it wasn't built yet. It wasn't built until 1957. It was St. Bridges Church which is at 14 and Stewart. That was the first church I belonged to. 1 lived on 17th Street. Back tracking. After our friend went back to Wisconsin, the nurse that I worked with at night was from a family of four girls and three of her sisters had gotten married and were no longer at home. She and I got along very well together and her parents invited me 18 .0 live with them. That's where 1 lived until 1 go, married. They were wonderful people. She's mamed and lives in California now. Both Papa and my little brother are deceased. But can you imagine someone today inviting you to their home to live? No. Not at all. Tell me how your parents were looking at all of this. You moving to the West, slopping in Las Vegas, deciding to stay here. How did they see all of this? My father was horrified that I was moving into an old gambling town. I tried to convince him that he'd gambled everyday of his life on a farm. That his crops would grow, that the weather would be right for his crops and so forth. He said he'd never gambled a day in his life. Did they ever come out to visit? Yes. They came out several times to visit. They would come out on the train. Same one I rode out. They d stay with us a week or two and he'd play some slot machines when he was here. Before he died, the last time he was out, he said, "Dorothy you were right. 1 did, my farming was a gamble. You don't gamble any more than I did." So he realized the way I had looked at the farm was just as much a gamble as it would be playing slot machines. And J guess once they visited, they began to see what a nice family you lived with? 1 think by the time they first came out 1 was married. They didn't come out when I was living with her, But they loved my husband the same as I did and they loved to come out and we'd go back there and visit them. Tell me about the houses that you and your husband lived in. Where in the city did you live? We first lived in an apartment building on Maryland Pkwy, close to Fremont Street. In March of 51 [1951] we moved into our first home which was on Houston Drive down in Crestwood, down near Eastern, Eastern and Charleston. We had a three-bedroom home. We loved it and 19 enjoyed i. very much. Then we, he had developed asthma quite badly and we didn't, in those days we had swamp coolers, so we moved over to Twin Lakes. Houses there had been built with air condition units. We wanted to see if it helped or not. He decided he would maybe like to go back to Maryland to work in his small town. We only stay there about three months and came back to Las Vegas. Did you sell your home and everything to leave and go back there? Yes we did and when we came back, we moved here Was the hospital air conditioned at that time, Clark County? Swamp coolers. Swamp coolers in the hospital also. When you went back to Maryland for that three month period, why did you decide so quickly to come back? We missed Las Vegas and everything that we had loved here. We decided to come back. Were you happy about that decision? Yes I think so. (Chuckle) Do you have any children? Yes. How many children do you have? Six. If I wanted to do something about the history of medicine in Las Vegas, what kind of changes did you see in your department while you were there? What kind of things would a historian write about that you saw happening there in the hospital? Well it was very different than what I had been used to because I'd always worked in a Catholic hospital where the nuns were in charge. But 1 liked the hospital. It was small and nursing care is 20 pretty much the same regardless of where the hospital is. Of course there weren't nearly as many tests that could be done in those days that were to help people. Occasionally we had people on our ward that were not obstetrical questions, there were severe asthmatic cases and they would have the oxygen tent as compared to the way they give oxygen today. Very difficult to work with. If I go to a hospital now and walk into a room and see those, it's way out of my field. I don't know what's going on even without asking a lot of questions. I think doctors were more dedicated to the people. There were a lot more family doctors in those days and very few specialists. The family doctor treated the whole family and got to know them all. They became friends even, which I doubt today. I don't know because I'm not in practice today. There are so many more specialties today, yet medicine is piece meal. Take care of a part rather than a person. How mdoisdt people pay for their medical care at that time? Cash, very little insurance of any kind. Course ther