Afterthoughts describes rural life and beekeeping in iowa, before the author was a medical student at the state university of iowa. Turner traveled as a pfizer medical student representative in the 1952 summertime, before working on an acute poliomyelitis ward later that summer. A blind date with polio nurse dorothy turner led to marriage in 1953, and the experiences of medical intern and nursing life together in phoenix, followed by nursing and u.S. Public health medical service positions in 1955 serving oklahomas cherokee and choctaw native americans. Orthopedic residency training in san francisco and philadelphia preceded a long career at the renowned lovelace clinic in albuquerque.

Afterthoughts

By ROBERT S. TURNER

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Robert S. Turner
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4634-3852-4

Contents

Farm Life in Iowa.................................................................................Page 2Childhood Life....................................................................................Page 3Harvest Times.....................................................................................Page 5Parents and Grandparents..........................................................................Page 6Dunkerton, Iowa Consolidated School...............................................................Page 7Sports, Individual Fitness and Eyesight...........................................................Page 8Farm Horses—and the John Deere "B" Tractor..................................................Page 9Beekeeping, a Vocational Agriculture Project With Challenges......................................Page 11The "Ironmen", Football and "Dutch" Reagan........................................................Page 12Trolley Lines; Hitchhiking........................................................................Page 13Quadrangle Dormitory—World War II Veterans and Classmates...................................Page 14Academic Endeavors................................................................................Page 15Summers—and Foundry, Silos, Foundations, and Pfizer.........................................Page 16College of Medicine—Freshman Year...........................................................Page 17College of Medicine—Sophomore Year; Honeybees and Pfizer....................................Page 18Pfizer Medical Student Travels and the l952 Polio Epidemic........................................Page 19Courtship, Engagement and a Preceptorship.........................................................Page 20Wedding, Honeymoon, Examination and Later Benefits, and Honeymoon.................................Page 21Senior Year Rotations—and Dorothy's Urology Ward Nursing Job................................Page 22Westward to Arizona...............................................................................Page 23The Cherokees—in the 1950's. Son Bruce's Birth. A 2006 visit................................Page 25Orthopedic Surgery Residency Training in the Golden State.........................................Page 27Across the Continent to the "City of Brotherly Love"..............................................Page 29Start of Orthopedic Surgery Practice in The Land of Enchantment...................................Page 31First in the World—and a Lovelace Tragedy...................................................Page 32Board of Governors at the Lovelace Clinic, and eventual Organizational Change.....................Page 33Academic Orthopedic Surgery and Postgraduate Medical and Nursing Education........................Page 34How Unfair—Then Memorial Seminars in Memory.................................................Page 35Continuation of the Dorothy Turner Memorial Seminars in Albuquerque...............................Page 37"Receptive to a Telephone Call"...................................................................Page 38Engagement, Our Wedding and Life Together.........................................................Page 40New Vistas and Events With Karen..................................................................Page 41Travels—Domestic and Foreign................................................................Page 43What Would You Change If You Could? What Happens by Chance?.......................................Page 44Some Reflections..................................................................................Page 45Challenges in the Senior Years....................................................................Page 46Churches and Their Impact.........................................................................Page 47Contemplations for the Future.....................................................................Page 48

Chapter One

Farm Life in Iowa

The rural Iowa that I knew sixty years ago has not disappeared, but major changes have occurred.

The bountiful Iowa soil remains, but the trees and shrubbery along the roads and fields have given way to crops planted up to the ditches and roadways.

Pasture—land is now used for crops, and dairy farmers specializing in milk production keep large numbers of dairy cattle.

Hog production for pork is also a specialty utilizing large buildings to raise many thousands of pigs, usually in a location far distant from other farm homes, due to odors.

The same type of specialization is true for egg and chicken production, with large buildings holding thousands of egg-laying hens.

With emphasis on producing only corn and soybeans, lack of crop rotation eliminates the growing of alfalfa or clover that enrich soil.

Except for Amish Mennonite farmers, horses are no longer used for plowing, pulling machinery or pulling wagons or "buggies".

The threshing "rings" of farmers working together for oat or wheat harvesting are history, with the use of combines that have eliminated the old-time grain binders, threshing machines and wagons that hauled bundles of oats or wheat to a threshing machine powered by a belt from a tractor. Combines also eliminated the grain wagons that were filled with the threshed grain that was scooped into farm grain bins, for feed for livestock or poultry.

With the disappearance of livestock on most Midwestern Iowa farms, there is no need for fences for livestock. At the same time, the use of silage to feed dairy cattle has ended the need for the large silos that stored the silage.

The cement silos, girded with steel rods, stand as white or gray "monuments" to a bygone era in Iowa and the rural Midwest.

With no dairy cattle, swine, chickens or horses to feed and tend at least daily—and twice daily for milking and feeding dairy cattle—there is no required "chore time". It is now possible for a farmer to have another job or occupation, in addition to farming.

Roads have improved, so it is possible to have farms at locations several miles apart, and to thus increase the amount of farmland that one farmer can "run". Also, the tractors have increased speeds and increased power, so greater acreage can be farmed during the time consuming planting and harvesting.

With the use of deep tillage instead of plowing, and the limited need to cultivate row crops, the busy and demanding times for crop farming are limited to the planting and harvesting times in spring and autumn.

Chapter Two

Childhood Life

Everyone has early memories, shaped by their families, environment, school, churches, friends and events.

My parents did not expect me to have "chore" responsibilities until age 9. As a result, I had considerable playtime on the farm, as a child.

With large maple trees shading the ground below those trees, it was fun to use wooden blocks as play trucks or play tractors and drive them on the play dirt roads and fields. My brother Donald, one and one/half year older, was my playmate.

In winter months, sledding downhill on the road north of our home was a highlight. As we became older, we played basketball in the driveway of the barn, adjacent to oat bins and haymows.

Fourth of July celebrating often included softball games in a small field, with extra servings of ice cream on those hot July afternoons.

During the warm...