STICK OR BE 'STUCK'

  On a Spring day in 1955, Principal C.H. MacGregor announced  to our assembled student body that the new Polio vaccine had proven effective.  I was a high school Junior and Polio had been the scourge of my youth. Quarantines had become annual occurrences. Iron Lungs made breathing possible and numerous other people experienced life-altering crippling. Two of my schoolmates had their mobility impaired. While exact numbers cannot be determined, there were thousands of Polio deaths in the 1940's and 1950's. With 3145 recorded deaths, 1952 was the deadliest.  Dr. Jonas Salk's vaccine soon changed all that. We gladly rolled up our sleeves for the vaccine and Polio cases soon declined. One source reported the eradication of the disease  in 1977 with the last indigenous case. The last imported case occured in 1993. Score one for vaccines !

    Measles, that's another story. Before the development of a vaccine, annual U.S. cases averaged 48,000 with 400-500 deaths. By 2000, with vaccines,  health officials declared the disease eliminated; but according to the CDC, as of August 26, 2025, 1408 cases have occurred this year with 92% of those unvaccinated, with 60+% of those persons under 20 years old.

   Now since 2019, there is COVID which has been as divisive as deadly.  I have seen two totals for U.S. deaths during the pandemic ... one reported 1,219,487 and another 1,226,351. While Operation Warp Speed produced a vaccine that was safe and effective and is credited with saving millions of lives, anti-vaccine (as well as anti-masking) sentiment and behaviors reduced its potential effectiveness. As of August 26, 2025, combatting another surge of Covid cases has been complicated by politicized guidelines by anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  

   Whereas in the past, Covid vaccine was available to anyone 6 months and older, eligibility is currently limited to persons 65 years old and older and those with underlying health concerns.  Additionally, Kennedy has taken other steps that curtail the availabilty of vaccines that have raised alarm in many physicians and health care providers.  A Health News Report from NPR on August 27, 2025, claimed that "the decision is expected to make it harder for many  people...to get a shot ahead of the expected winter COVID surge."  Additionally, it asserts that the "new restrictions on the update COVID vaccines, which target the LP.8.1 omicron subvariant, mean insurance  may no longer pay for the shots, doctors may balk at stocking and prescribing them, and pharmacists may be unable or unwilling to administer the vaccines."

   On September 1,2025, a group of former directors and former directors of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, going back to the 1970's, published an opinion piece, stating that what Kennedy "has done to the C.D.C. and to our nation's public health system ...is unlike anything we had ever seen at the agency and unlike anything our country had ever experienced."  Kennedy's actions and decisions are "unacceptable" and "should alarm every American, regardless of political leanings." [NYT, 9/1/2025]

   Being well past 65, we will get the vaccine (pending its availability).  My brothers and their families, our adult children, our grandchildren, our nieces and nephews. and friends should also have that option if they wish.  Anyone who wants the vaccine should receive it. Otherwise, many fear an impending public health disaster.

    Are you prepared ?

          Satchel

" TV or NOT TV"

     TV  or  NOT  TV

   With so much 'heavy' news, I opted for a bit of 'nostalgia' today.  Do you remember the first time you saw a television program ? Did your parents already own tv set(s) when you were born ?Did you grow up with black and white or color ?  Then there was the time that practically every house had a tv antenna on the roof. Did you ever use "rabbit ears" with strips of aluminum foil to enhance reception ? When did "TV Repairman" become an obsolete occupation ?

    Though tv was invented in 1927, many years passed before becoming a 'household word". I first saw "television" in the early 1950's when delivering dry cleaning with Dad. He called to me from Gene Robertson's house.  Mr. R operated a local appliance store. They were watching a test pattern from WFMY in Greensboro ! That was it ! We must have stared for several minutes like it was the next 'wonder of the world'. I do not remember when or where I first saw a 'real' program. 

    For several years our family's entertainment center had remained the old reliable Philco radio.  Standing at least three feet tall, it was a piece of furniture as well. Sometime around 1955, soon after moving to our new house, our parents purchased their first t.v. set. Like the old Philco, their first model resembled a substantial piece of furniture.Vintage sets today sometimes fetch prices in the thousands of dollars. My 'research' indicated that by 1955 half  the homes in the United States had a tv set, up from 1% in 1948. 

    TV quickly began to impact movie attendance and radio listenership ( is that a word ?).  Radio, once the home of a wide variety of programming, devolved primarily into a medium for news, music and talk shows.

    Not everyone in our parents' neighborhood had their own set. Almost every night after dinner (we called it supper), with regularity, our doorbell rang, announcing that mom's distant cousin, Jessie Lee, had arrived for her evening 'visit'. She took her seat directly in from of the set, said little, and remained there for much of the evening.

    Programs diversified rapidly after those test patterns.  In 1954, area college basketball games were shown without sound and the play by play came via a radio. All that had changed by 1957 when UNC won the national championship by defeating Wilt Chamberlain and the University of Kansas team. A friend of a college friend had a television set and she invited several us to watch the game at her home.

    To watch Major League baseball now is commonplace.  Not so in the early years when there was the "Game of the Week", featuring former stars "Dizzy" Dean and "PeeWee" Reese. Whether his natural parlance or contrived, Dean often murdered the language by exclaiming that a player had slud into a base. My wife remembers her cousins coming to watch the games, especially when the BROOKLYN Dodgers were playing.

   Among the early programs that I remember our watching were The Ed Sullivan Show; Gunsmoke; The Walt Disney Program and The 64 Thousand Dollar Question. Although Dr. Joyce Brothers won the Big prize, Charles Van Doren was later disgraced by the revelation that he had received the answers in advance.  In his later years, Dad enjoyed The Price is Right and Red Skelton. After their retirements, he and Mom enjoyed the daily 'soaps'.

    When I have seen lists of favorite programs from  past years, I have realized that I never watched most of them.  Those I did enjoy included Hill Street Blues, All in the Family, Jeopardy, Hee-Haw and my all-time favorite M-A-S-H. "Uncle" Walter Cronkite and his predecessor, Edward R. Murrow became my trusted sources of news. Probably like many Americans in 1963, I was watching when Cronkite announced the death of President John F. Kennedy. And I was watching when Jack Ruby walked out of the crowd and shot Lee Harvey Oswald. "Saw some real people die on t.v.", the Statler Brothers sang of that era.

    A few years ago, we gave ourselves an anniversary gift of a wall mounted 'big screen'. We watched area college basketball games during the season and in March Madness tournaments, along with occasional movies.  The basics of 'streaming'  without digital channel indentifiers continue to elude me. Nor do I understandd the transition of a few years ago when all t.v. models became obsolete, including the midget-size model in my office.

    "What'll they think of next ?"

         Satchel

   

"Don't be Cruel " ....Elvis

  Elvis has left the room !

            Or at least is well on his way out the door !

He sang "Don't be cruel to a heart that's true ...

   Don't want no other love; Baby, it's still you I'm thinking of."

Dictionary : "Cruel": "willfully causing pain or suffering to others and feeling no concern about it."  Some synonyms include; "harsh, merciless, bloodthirsty, hateful, inhumane,vicious and heartless."

  "Empathy" by contrast means "the ability to understand and share another person's feelings, thoughts, and experiences by imaginging oneself in their situation." It is foundational for the existence of commonwealth ... "a political community founded for the common good", including the less-healthy, less-wealthy and too often, the less-white.  It gives a resounding "YES" to the question "Am I my  brother [and sister's] keeper ?" But a society based on self-centeredness ... everyone for themselves and to hell with anyone else ... is, well, Cruel.

  Mr. Musk recently called empathy "the fundamental weakness of Western civilization". One news commentator observed that "Elon Musk seems to believe  that cruelty is the antidote to empathy." 

  The American historian, Hannah Arendt, who wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism, noted that "the death of human empathy  is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism."  Surveying contemporary American

society and politics, David Brooks of the New York Times bluntly noted a "callous tolerance of cruelty."

  Recently, despite numerous polls showing opposition, Congress passed a bill that expresses CRUELTY toward large numbers of vulnerable Americans. 

 A minister friend wrote that the administration is "systematically strip[ping] away social  safety nets, 

gut[ting] programs meant to  care for the elderly

the disabled

the poor

the marginalized

the orphaned and the widow--

the ones God's heart beats fiercest for -- 

'while they passs a Big Beautiful Bill

that is only beautiful

if your bank account is already overflowing

And to keep you from noticing,

they light fires of distraction. " 

  

  Statistics can disguise the full magnitude of human suffering

unless we remember that those statistics represent impacted PEOPLE. .For example:

 ..To the estimated 85 million people already uninsured, another 17 million will lose health insurance coverage. "Let 'em get a job is frequently offered as a 'reason' to eliminate persons from Medicaid. A U.S. Congresswoman from South Carolina recently expressed that attitude in much coarser terms. 

    Medicaid "fraud" glosses over the fact that there are MANY reasons why some people cannot work and none imply

laziness 

...nursing homes receive approximately two-thirds (2/3) of their support from Medicaid.

...many rural and small town hospitals will be forced to close.  Our local hospital has been projected to be among the "likely".  Also, see a column in July 6, 2025, New York Times, " 'Tears My Heart to Pieces: North Carolina Braces for Medicaid Cuts" .

...Through no fault nor responsibility of theirs, millions of children will be deprived of nutritional sustenance

...Law-abiding, long-time U.S. residents will increasingly 'disappear' without their Constitional right to due process

being honored.  The bill provides for billions of dollars increase in ICE's budget. 

  Additional examples of cruelty abound: A concentration camp for detaining non-criminal people. And given the brazen name "Alligator Alcatraz", though some have suggested  that a more accurate name would be "Alligator Auschwitz". Then there are the not-humorous jokes about what will happen to anyone attempting escape.

     Likely, many of those incarcerated could update Elvis's words to "Don't be cruel to a heart that's true; Don't want no other homeland; USA, it's you I'm dreaming of".

    "Don't be Cruel !"

                              Satchel

    

   

             

   

   

                                      

    

'Good Night and Good Luck'

    Edward R. Murrow, a trusted mid-twentieth century journalist , typically ended his broadcasts with "Goodnight and Good Luck."  Currently a drama using that tag line dominates Broadway and was recently televised live.   So, what was there about this newsman that resonates many decades later ?

       As an undergrad in the late 1950's, I played his 78 rpm vinyl, "I Can Hear it Now",  so many times that  I almost had it memorized.  The actual voices and sounds of many historical  persons and events captivated me.  Murrow had earlier gained renown with his live broadcasts from London during the German bombing blitz.  (Both that recording and excerpts of  the London broadcasts are available onYouTube.)After the war, he became the 'face' of CBS  news, first on radio and ultimately on television.

    In that latter position, he helped end one of our country's darkest eras. Joe McCarthy, Wisconsin's Junior Senator, sowed fear and ended many careers with his "Communist Witch Hunt".  Murrow was one of few who dared confront McCarthy's lies and intimidations. Several of  these broadcasts are also  readily available on YouTube by simply searching his name. President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, calling him a "gallant fighter" in the search for truth as a newsman and public official.  According to one website , "Murrow was especially known for his1954 expose on Senator Joseph McCarthy who made sensational but unproven charges of communist infiltration in the U.S. government. With this and other reporting, Murrow became known for his commitment to truth and objectivity."

     Speaking truth to power requires courage and integrity, especially when fear is rampant and distortions and lies abound. Some Murrow quotes that continue to have relevance:

  ."We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty."

  ."We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

   ."A nation of sheep will begat a government of wolves."

   ."I simply cannot accept that there are on every story two equal and logical sides to an argument."

    ."We will not walk in fear."

             Satchel

     

        

    

'TIL THE 'FUZZ' WEARS OFF

 

       "She thought that some fuzzy ducklings would provide happiness and fun" he complained.  "Ducklings become  ducks and ducks don't just smell bad, they stink", he continued.  Then came his forecast that "she will enjoy them 'til the fuzz wears off" and then the responsibility/work/committment will not always be "fun".

     While his bewilderment focused on actual ducks, I sensed that he had created a metaphor for much of 'life'.  Whether acquired for "fun", diversion, or a perception of 'necessity',  eventually the 'new' wears off and 'now what ?'

   I still remember the delight that I felt in 2004 when I was handed the keys to a new Toyota Camry, the first new car that I had bought in  decades. It gleamed. smelled fresh, and had more 'bells and whistles' than any automobie I had ever owned. (Well, ownership came 3 years later with the final monthly payment.)  For many years I drove it a minimum of 350-400 miles in my work.   Now that I work from home and seldom drive that car, it sets rather forlornly on the side street ---with its 250,000+ miles, broken mirror, faded luster, crippled CD player, and lots of additional "fuzz" gone. However, having the nearby dealership provide regular service and maintenance, I still get 30 miles per gallon in dependable transportation.

    Something akin to that process happens to humans. A young boy's "peach fuzz" gives way either to the near daily ritual of shaving or growing 'facial foliage'.  A collector related his pleasure and pride in obtaining a painting by a renown artist. In the first few months, he delighted in having friends visit to admire his acquisition. Soon he was daily walking past it without even turning his head.

    "Fuzz" can provide much needed bright spots to the routine, to the  ordinary, to the responsibilities of life. Without being cynical (like the man who disparaged the ducklings) maybe there is a balance to be found in having "Ducklings and Ducks".

     Satchel

The eighteenth of April in Seventy-five

                                                           "The British Are Coming !"

 "Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.

On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-five

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year." 

         Henry W. Longfellow

Longfellow wrote this poem in 1860 ; published it the following year in The Atlantic Monthly Magazine.  There on the eve of the Civil War, the poet was attempting to rally Union sentiment by venerating a hero of the American Revolution who had alerted colonial patriots of impemding suppression by British troops marching from Boston towards Lexington and Concord.  It was then that the first shots were fired in the American Revolution and the long struggle  to establish a new independent nation. In time, Thomas Jefferson and others declared that "all men are created equal" and eventually a Constitution ratified as  the Supreme law of the nation.

   All this because of several people (Revere was not the only messenger) alerted the colonial militia of the King's army en route to further diminish their freedoms ? While there is a much more complex 'back story', this overview is accurate. Scholars have demonstrated that although Longfellow somewhat embellished details, Revere's ride and the aftermath signaled 'turning points' for Americans.

   It is afternoon of April 18, 2025, as I write this--- 250 years since that celebrated date.  Fifty years ago today, my former seminary roommate and I happened to be in Boston at the same time--- he and his wife accompanying a youth group from their church in New York state and I  attending a History conference.  We arranged to meet at the  Observation Room atop the John Hancock building.  Looking North,with a full panorama of Boston below us as dusk approached, we heard on the self-paced guided tour words to the  effect that at a particular location we could see the  Old North Church where Revere and ally arranged lantern signals at dusk to indicate British troop movements . . . 200 years exactly since that date. We both immediately caught the fact and had goosebumps !

    Compared with many nations, the United States is a relative newcomer.  While the fulfillment of our Principles has often been erratic and incomplete, commitment to human dignity, common good, and the rule of Law must not be abandoned nor relinquished.  And though the 'British Redcoats' are no longer the instruments of tyranny and suppression, they have contemporary counterparts.

   Longfellow's poem remains a call to action, reminding us of  the courage of our ancestors: "So through the night rode Paul Revere,

And so through the night went his cry of alarm . . .

A cry of defiance and not of fear . . . And a word that shall echo forevermore !  For borne of the night-wind of the Past,

Through all our history, to the last.'

In the hour of darkness and peril and need

The people will waken and listen to hear

The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,

And the midnight message of Paul Revere." 

     Satchel

 alerting

A NEW HIP

 

     

                                        "Never doubt  the healing quality of cold surgical steel."

                                      M.D. Wachs, MD     Retired Orthopedic Surgeon    Ca 1975

                                                       

                                                   

       

"What is the difference in 'Major' surgery  and 'Minor' surgery ?''

   The answer, often heard,  "If you have it, it's Minor surgery.

        If I have it, it's Major surgery !"

   My left hip had been increasingly bothersome for a couple of years and my college friend, Dr. Ben Zambrana, assured me that I would know beyond doubt when surgery was indicated.  Both my younger brothers, each a veteran of several orthopedic surgeries, had expressed their incredulence that I had not joined the club, though I have had several non-orthopedic procedures.

   Dr. Z was right and 'my time' arrived. My physician assured me that my being 87 years old was not a deterrent, so plans proceeded for the 'grand opening'.  Somethings remain unchanged ----'dignity' quickly vanishes when the 'gown' complete with open derriere becomes the official uniform. On previous occasions, I received general anesthesia but  my surgeon  recommended the spinal option with a 'counsciousness suppressant'.  A logical but unanticipated result was my total paralysis below the waist.  Willing my legs to move became a futility, and increased my empathy with those for whom this is a permanent realtity.

   Lewis Grizzard once commented that "surgery will change your attitude towards narcotics". Beyond whatever pain-control meds may have been administered during the operation, I have had no narcotic  meds nor significant pain.  The anterior approach to the joint has significantly reduced post-op concerns.  Same day hospital discharge occurs frequently. By contrast, my brother, a retired orthopedic surgeon, remembered that 50 years ago when he began doing hip replacement surgery using the  posterior approach, patients stayed in the hospital for  a week.  Thereafter, they had to use a triangular pillow

between their legs when in bed for a month post op. 

   The title of a 1970's pop psychology book, I Ain't Well but  I Sure am Better, aptly describes my post op experience.  The first few days definitely are not 'do it yourself' challenges. Along with my wife, our son took vacation days and came in from L.A. to assist in the numerous necessary (and sometimes unpleasant) tasks.  Being alone in the immediate aftermath of hip surgery is a  HUGE no-no.

   If this procedure is in your future and you are near the Greensboro, North Carolina area, I give an unequivocable recomendation for Dr. Brian Swinteck of EmergeOrtho and for the staff at Wesley Long Hospital (of the Cone Health System.)

  Maybe the 'Cone' part was a  playful pun on the blanket a friend gave me : 

 

                                                                     4 days post op

    Someone asked "What does that surgery cost?"  While I do not yet have a final accounting, the benefit will be greater  than a monetary price tag ---as important as that reality may be.  Because of my age, Medicare and Medicare supplemental insurance likely will significantly reduce my personal responsibility.  HOWEVER, the future of that program as well as Medicaid apparently is facing strong political headwinds that could possibly mean that basic medical care as well as life-saving surgical procedures will be beyond the financial ability of many people. . . and that would be a MAJOR catastrophe !

     Satchel

Jocko, Pinko and other professor characters

 

                                                "Jocko"  with  award  from  Elon University

        What is your first thought when you hear the words "college professor"? . . . stick in the mud ?; too serious and unapproachable? ; absent-minded ?; or . . .?  Being a History Prof from 1968-1983, I knew that no one description fit the wide variety of my colleagues' personalities. Some were sure enough stodgy, others bright and witty, etc.  Then there were several that were fun to be with and to call friends.  Many, no, most are now deceased.  First comes the tennis coach, very much  alive  Tom Parham.  While he knew my name, he always greeted me with "Pinko"

  It all started in 1968 when someone in our apartments offered tickets to a Hubert Humphrey Political rally in Charlotte.  When I expressed interest, the person told my new friend Tom that the bearded History professor must be a  Communist.  Tom thought that was  a hoot and began good-naturately calling me  "Pinko".  His being a Phys Ed teacher and the Varsity tennis coach, I  thought an appropriate  moniker for him would be "Jocko".  And so, over the years those were our greetings to each other.

   While my career as a History professor ended in 1983, Tom coached tennis at Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College) and Elon University for 19 years at each  school. Along the way, his teams won three NAIA National Championships and he was named "Coach of the Year" on four occasions.  He has been elected to eight (8 !) Halls of Fame.

   Over the years, our contacts have been infrequent; still I have good memories and great appreciation for that friendship from the past.  All this came to mind recently while doing an internet search for a different matter and happened to spot a referencee to some of his post-retirement writings. Jocko knows how to tell a good story, as attested by the  inscription on the plaque above.   It was a pleasure reconnecting last week.

     Our correspondence brought to mind some of the other interesting and colorful colleagues from that era.  Allow me  to introduce a few: Ed outwardly portrayed a curmudgeonly old batchelor. Behind his sardonic New England wit was a very kind man.  At the beginning of every Friday class, he would unfurl his small TGIF flag; Dr. Mildred Hartsock, the venerable Chair of the English Department, endured many graduation ceremonies by drawing an outline of the U.S. on her bulletin and filling in the state borders; Norbert was a 'colorful' (pun intended) Art professor. At a faculty picnic, he achieved the nearly impossible feat of throwing a double ringer ahead of me. Imagine our surprise when I topped his ringers with two of my own, thereby negating his miracle; Tom M. drove the Humane Society's Animalance, a converted hearse. As running buddies, we often noted the irony of two middle-age men jogging through the streets of a cemetery in pursuit of health; Bill and Roger taught in the Religion Department. Bill later became a Seminary Dean and Roger was  a member of the translation team for the Good News for Modern Man Bible version; "Doc" Sanford once played first base for the Washington Senators; Eddie claimed to have been a German soldier in World War Two. Dr. Marshall questioned him about his unit and being something of a history buff recognized the group as  part of the destruction of the Czech town of Lidice. The conversation topic change abruptly.

    Then there were others. Maybe for a later time. For the most part, "thanks for the memories".

     Did you have any interesting teachers/professors

         Satchel

     

WHO WAS 'THAT' ?

   

        

                       Just prior to their deaths in 1951                            Wedding picture

                  My maternal grand-parents

"Mom has closets full of old pictures, without any identifiers. Old relatives and friends long since forgotten" my acquaintence told me.  She plannned a 'great throwing away party'. I offered an alternative idea: sell them to an antique dealer. 

  Just a few days before, we were in a local antique shop and  there they were . . . baskets of pictures of people in all kinds of attire, ceremonies, everyday life events. All of these with no or minimal identifications. Apparently, the items sell.

   Still, there is something sad about this. My parents' albums contained images that others wondered 'who was that?' The above  pictures of my grand-parents are an exception . . . for now. Hollie McKay in a recent Substack article about the losses in the California wildfire noted that "  things" are more than possesssions; they are the tangible connections to  loved ones, past chapters, and a sense of self. The family photographs aren't just pieces of paper --they are fragments of time, capturing moments you'll never get back."  She continued "Even the most minor, most mundane items .  . . are imbued with meaning."

  Back to those images in antiques stores:  I find it easy to conjure stories about those forgotten folks--- were they healthy, did they live rewarding lives, what were the occasions captured in those 'pieces of paper',etc.  

  It will take a biti of time but I plan to write identifiers on most of my important photographs so that some time in the s future, no one will need ask  "Who was    that?"  Here are a few of those needing attention:

 

 Can you identify all the folks in your collection ?

Satchel