Anna Louise Tittman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Anna Tittman
A. No, no. Oh, no. It was caring for patients, you see
was most inportant. They made it more important there th:
although I-well, we were just out of school and I liked 1
so I mde very good grades. I remember I got a hundred or
hgdon, old Doctor Langdonl s bmk on obstetdcs , I man :
stetrics.
Q. He1 s husband's great-grandfather, Doctor Langdon.
A. Oh?
Q. Yes, husband's name is kwis Langdon Hemdon.
A. Oh, -don Hemdon.
Q. Well, tell m a little bit about Doctor Langdon.
A. Well, he was the obstetrician, that's about all I Icnm
the training was mnial. What you might call mnial, altl
menial if you-you, like getting things clean.
Q. You did lots of that?
I
and your *ark
1 your books,
3 study anyhow,
the-Doctor ,
?ctms on ob-
about him. But
3U@;h no work is
A. Did a lot of that. The ni&t before I graduated, I swbed the operating
mom floor on hands and bees. But even the nurses, sore of t;he
older nurses-and I was too little to do it, couldn't reacb it--cleaned the
elevator up here (points to ceiling). And they were scwinpywe scrubbed;
we mpped the floors of our patient's rooms and all the thflngs like that,
you see. Even had to clean the toilet and so forth.
i
Q. D i W t they have my other help to clean? Did they j&t use student
nurses?
A. They had one m that would sweep, sweep the halls wLlth a brush. And
he was-see, Concorida college professors cmstituted the board, not the
medicd. I don1 t how if they had a medical group or not, just the staff.
There was old Doctor Dixon, too, and he gave us our surgi 1 nursing and
took us hto the operating room one the and shawed us a1 $ the instruments
in this big glass case that; stood this high. And he pointpd out an instrument-got
it out and showed us. It was an lnstmnnent thatc-now this is the
story-an instrument that he could remove a flshbone from p man's throat.
So at one time he was called- he told this story; he to1
1
thls experience,
that he was called to the St. Nicholas Hotel to a man who ad a fishbone
cawt in his throat. And he had this instmnt with h' . I guess maybe
he was told beforehand to bring it or mwbe he just cmie it around, I
don't know. He took out the fbhbone and the ran said, " w much do I
owe you? It "Five dollars . that's an mf'ul lot to p for such a
little time that it to&."
'Wow let me see i I got it dl."
He put the flshbone back
"Now Ill1 take it out for ten."
(laughter) He told this story elf.
I
C
Q. Do you think it was a true tory?