Doctor's in Sweden

 Doctor's in Sweden!

                                            in the den


     Again to the little room where I spent my teenage years. This bedroom became a full bar when my Dad got rid of me after college. It was a prime spot and was kind of pool-side where one could hear the swing-shift whistle from the Purex Plant or drunken punks clanging around the rocket ship in North Playground at the park. When I got my first real job as a salesman at VWR and moved to my own pad,  my Dad quickly had the wall taken out and a sliding glass door put in across from a fully stocked bar. So, eventually the front room at 9230 Annetta was replaced by this small mini-tavern at the rear with a color TV, wood paneling and booze a-plenty. There was a cozy couch and chairs enough to comfortably seat maybe a half dozen old people and in Summer you could just slide right out the slider and into the refreshing pool. This story was one that Greg took and made his own, repeating the key phrase in any occasion when pain or a need for medical assistence would be required. He was visiting with his Dad, along with my brother, his wife and my parents in the new den. I was not even present but Greg reported the action to me later. For some reason BC stood up to prepare a drink and was jolted by a back spasm that sent him reeling backward to the bar where he held himself upright with a forearm but grimacing in pain. Greg claimed that Stephen very uncharacteristically bleated out "DAD!" and BC answered through the pain "the Doctor's in Sweden!" It was such a non-sequitor that Greg threw it in the humor hopper for further use. The Doctor in this case was the long-time Creason physician who I was not a great fan of since he was brusque and dismissed Psychiatry as voodoo. He was a Mormon man that for whatever reason was revered highly by my parents. He DID deliver all of my Mother's children including me at St. Luke's hospital in Altadena. Old Doc Nebeker met his Mormon maker in small aircraft against the side of a mountain near Big Bear around Christmas in 1975, obviously after he had returned from Sweden. 




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