In 1998 I went to the Izard County Fair to bid on some chickens. I have always enjoyed selling fresh farm eggs in each and every pharmacy in which I have worked. The market is good in Hardy since so many people live in Cherokee Village. It is a retirement community, and it is what feeds Sharp County. After purchasing as many chickens as I needed, my attention turned to the pigeons which were being displayed in the same building. I asked a lady if any of them were for sale, she told me that if I wanted to know anything about the pigeons I would need to talk to the man sitting at a table near the end of the building. I slowly walked over to the table and made an astounding discovery. The man was seated, but it did not take me long to observe that this man looked exactly like a "Thalidomide Baby"! His head was of normal size, but his body was tiny and fragile. I noticed that one of his hands had a thumb and the rest of the fingers were fused together. The other hand was nothing more than a "Stump". I later observed that he had only one leg, and the other leg had a specially made (almost square) shoe. After enquiring about the birds, it did not take very long for me to realize that he was a very intelligent man. My questions were somewhat naive, but I could tell that his curiosity had been peaked. He told me that none of the birds on display could be purchased, because they would simply fly back HOME! He then told me that he would be willing to give me a few of his late hatches and maybe they would stay or maybe not.
The man told Joan and I that we were welcome to go to his home in Oxford, AR., and he gave us driving instructions to his place. Several days later, we called him to see if we could go over to get the birds. He responded that the time was appropriate, so we got into my truck and drove over to his place. Upon arrival, he was sitting just inside of his fence in a wheelchair. He had already asked me what my occupation was so he asked Joan her's. She told him that she was a Microbiologist and was now teaching at Ozarka College in Melbourne, Arkansas. He then shocked both of us as he casually said, "I don't recall if I told y'all, but I am a retired M.D.!!" I remember saying "surely you are kidding"! His response was, "No, O.B./Gyn". I said "you mean that you delivered babies, etc.". He said, "Yes, but most of my career was spent doing research." It was then that he disclosed that he had been department head of Teratology (Study of Drugs that cause Birth Defects) at the University of Miami. I could not believe what I had heard as I looked down on this badly physically deformed man. He explained that he had been responsible for the training of other Physicians in "Fetal Surgery". They initially used drugs to induce defects in Rhesus Monkeys, and then just sacrificed the fetus. Then he said they began a program to try salvaging the fetus by performing "Micro-Surgery". He said at first they had limited success, but over time they became quite good. He also commented on how difficult it was to train doctors who had already learned to do things the conventional way. One look at him and anyone would realize that he had had to do each and every small task in his everyday life in an unconventional manner.
We were invited in to meet his wife, Alice, before he took us to where the pigeons were located. He pointed in the general direction that we could walk, and he climbed upon his riding lawn mower which had a wagon attached. This enabled him to travel from place to place on his property (100 Acres) without having to depend on his crutches so much.. Once we got to where the birds were located, he pointed out a cage that I could borrow to transport the birds back to our HOME. He then pointed to the birds that I could have, and then had me catch each one. He gave me 5 or 6 birds, and he instructed me to keep them locked up in my barn for about 2 weeks. He said after that length of time, I could let them go and maybe they would stay and maybe not.
As Joan and I were driving back home with the birds, we were so EXCITED! WOW what an experience!!! I did not have the proper facilities to keep pigeons, but somehow I managed to keep them locked up for the suggested period of time. Once I let them go, they immediately flew like "HELL" to get out of there! I never saw any of them ever again!
Winter, page 1 | Winter, page 2 | Winter, page 3 |
