So most of today was spent at the Carroll County Hospital. Nothing wrong with me, Karen was finally having the carpel tunnel thing in her left wrist taken care of. It finally got to the point where she could not shift the 4 speed on her Vespa PX150.
Of course she could not have any food from midnight on last night, so in a loving show of solidariy I had no breakfast either. Her surgery was not till noon so by the time I checked her in and they wheeled her up to the O.R. I was starving. Went down to the cafeteria to see what they had. Karen had her right wrist done a couple of weeks ago, so I know the food at the Carroll County Hospital is good. Today the main entry was sliced BBQ. Being hungrey I went for the beef.
I stacked a good portion on the styrofoam plate, they weighed it and I sat down to enjoy my food. They had the usual plastic spoon/fork/knife in a sterial plastic tube and tearing it open I found the joke of a plastic knife unable to slice the beef. So being a knife carrying person I took out the old peanut and proceded to eat.
Sitting over at another table was an older white haired doctor type in a white coat, and he was watching me with very intent interest. About my own age, mid 60's, kind of a Hal Holbrook type. I was aware of the close scrutiny, and when he got up after finishing his lunch and came over to my table I was prepared for an anti knife grilling. I was in for a surprise.
"Thats a Case peanut, isin't it?" he asked me. I was surprised to say the least.
I wiped off the BBQ sause and handed it to him and he looked at it with admiration. Sitting down opposite me, he handed the knife back and reached into his own pants pocket and took out a Case XX marked peanut of his own with old red bone scales. I think one could have knocked me out of my chair with a soda straw. I looked over his old peanut, and the blade was worn down some but was wicked sharp. We talked knives for a while, and he told me he was from up in the panhandle of Maryland by Oakland, and had grown up fishing and hunting. He had bought his old Case over 40 years ago, and used it for many cutting jobs and even in the hospital it was handy to have a sharp cutting edge on him. Then he told me that one night 20 years ago he had done an emergency trachiometry on an accident victim.
He was on the way home from a dinner out with his wife and was witness to a bad car accident. One driver had run thru an intersection and there were some injuries. He stopped to render what aid he could, and then found one victim gagging and unable to breath. His throat had hit the steering wheel and damaged his throat, and the doctor had used the pocket knife and the barrel of a ball point pen to give him an airway. The young man lived and later thanked the doctor for saving his life. I looked down at the worn little knife in my hand and felt alot of new respect for what a small cutting tool in the right hands can do. He told me the thin pointy blade went right thru the trachia.
I told him how Case will recondition his knife for a small fee, and he thanked me. He said he sometimes goes to the knife shows in Baltimore, and has a small collection of Case pocket knives. We talked a little more about knives, and then they were paging him so we shook hands and he left.
It was a strange experiance to meet a fellow knife knut under those conditions in a hospital of all places. But I guess an old country doctor from the Maryland/West Virginia border would appreatiate a sharp tool.
Of course she could not have any food from midnight on last night, so in a loving show of solidariy I had no breakfast either. Her surgery was not till noon so by the time I checked her in and they wheeled her up to the O.R. I was starving. Went down to the cafeteria to see what they had. Karen had her right wrist done a couple of weeks ago, so I know the food at the Carroll County Hospital is good. Today the main entry was sliced BBQ. Being hungrey I went for the beef.
I stacked a good portion on the styrofoam plate, they weighed it and I sat down to enjoy my food. They had the usual plastic spoon/fork/knife in a sterial plastic tube and tearing it open I found the joke of a plastic knife unable to slice the beef. So being a knife carrying person I took out the old peanut and proceded to eat.
Sitting over at another table was an older white haired doctor type in a white coat, and he was watching me with very intent interest. About my own age, mid 60's, kind of a Hal Holbrook type. I was aware of the close scrutiny, and when he got up after finishing his lunch and came over to my table I was prepared for an anti knife grilling. I was in for a surprise.
"Thats a Case peanut, isin't it?" he asked me. I was surprised to say the least.
I wiped off the BBQ sause and handed it to him and he looked at it with admiration. Sitting down opposite me, he handed the knife back and reached into his own pants pocket and took out a Case XX marked peanut of his own with old red bone scales. I think one could have knocked me out of my chair with a soda straw. I looked over his old peanut, and the blade was worn down some but was wicked sharp. We talked knives for a while, and he told me he was from up in the panhandle of Maryland by Oakland, and had grown up fishing and hunting. He had bought his old Case over 40 years ago, and used it for many cutting jobs and even in the hospital it was handy to have a sharp cutting edge on him. Then he told me that one night 20 years ago he had done an emergency trachiometry on an accident victim.
He was on the way home from a dinner out with his wife and was witness to a bad car accident. One driver had run thru an intersection and there were some injuries. He stopped to render what aid he could, and then found one victim gagging and unable to breath. His throat had hit the steering wheel and damaged his throat, and the doctor had used the pocket knife and the barrel of a ball point pen to give him an airway. The young man lived and later thanked the doctor for saving his life. I looked down at the worn little knife in my hand and felt alot of new respect for what a small cutting tool in the right hands can do. He told me the thin pointy blade went right thru the trachia.
I told him how Case will recondition his knife for a small fee, and he thanked me. He said he sometimes goes to the knife shows in Baltimore, and has a small collection of Case pocket knives. We talked a little more about knives, and then they were paging him so we shook hands and he left.
It was a strange experiance to meet a fellow knife knut under those conditions in a hospital of all places. But I guess an old country doctor from the Maryland/West Virginia border would appreatiate a sharp tool.
