ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPITAL

I can't find any pictures of the hospital on Google; they're all of the "Community Center", which is like no help. I want St. Joseph's Hospital, that place that cured my ills, stiched up my wounds, and kept my head screwed on in later years. The ER, Pediatrics, the Emergency Stabilization Program, they all took care of me when I needed it.

I was athsmatic as a child, and prone to pneumonia, which meant I spent at least a week as an inpatient every year, from the time I was three until I was eleven. Dr. Mattey took great care of me, and the nurses spoiled me rotten...the stack of comic books didn't hurt, either.

Like most kids, we got our share of cuts, scrapes, and the like, so my brothers and I were regular guests of the ER-the aftermath of the Imfamous Rock Fight of '64 comes to mind, with five of us neighborhood kids getting stitches in our heads from rocks (or, in my case, a big stick) inflicted during the melee. WE were cool, but our mothers didn't speak to each other for weeks!

I spent two weeks in after a drug overdose in '78, and was in and out of the ESP for depression. Even so, it was comforting to see the faces of those who'd cared for me from childhood.

To Drs Mattey, Myers, Lee, etc, to Kay, Mrs. Paine, Nurses Sextella and Moon, I raise a glass...of slightly warm 7-Up, of course.