Reflections on 'staying in'

I don't recall any time in my life that would be really comparable to the last month or so of this year. We're "staying in," "social distancing," "wearing a mask to the grocery store," "washing our hands often," "avoiding touching our faces," "not going out to eat," "avoiding crowds," and so on. This has been an illness situation that most of us have never seen before, where it is very contagious, may be passed on by people who don't even know they have it, and may be deadly serious in many cases. One of my friends in the Conway area passed away last week from complications from the COVID-19 virus. He was younger than I am.

I do remember being quarantined once in my early life.

When I was quite young, younger than school age, I was diagnosed with scarlet fever. So the doctor had our whole family stay in and stay away from other people for several weeks. I don't remember much about the treatment. I do remember being given some small pills each day and staying in bed a lot. Actually I don't remember how I felt during that time. I must have had a fever during much of that quarantined time, but I can't say I remember it. I also can't remember if my brother Ben got it as well.

That was before our brother John or sister Donna were born, and it was when Dr. Greene was still practicing medicine in Pea Ridge. There were no hospitals close by us in those days. That was back when doctors made house calls. Dr. Greene would come by every few days to check on us and bring the medicines we were supposed to take. Dr. Greene had been a doctor in Pea Ridge for a long time when I came along. He was the doctor who brought me into the world, as we say, and he was our family doctor for several years after that.

We never said, "Let's go to the doctor," or "Let's call the doctor," in those days. The doctor didn't spend a whole lot of time at his office, and we didn't have a phone. More commonly you said, "Go get the doctor!" That might mean that he got in the car with you and you drove him out to your place. Of course after his visit you would drive him back to town.

As I recall, by the time I started to school in 1946 Dr. Greene was no longer practicing. I got my vaccination before going to school from Dr. Atkinson in Bentonville. Dr. Greene had his office in the upper story of the downtown Pea Ridge Tetrick Building, as we called it then. More recently, the building housed the Pea Ridge City Hall for many years. Before that, Charlie Tetrick had had a produce store there early on, and at one time it had even been a Chevrolet dealership.

At one time, I think it was in the early 1930s, Pea Ridge had a hospital. It was owned and operated by a doctor whose name I don't know. It was located on what is now the north-most block of North Curtis Avenue, where the Telephone Company buildings stand. When my memory begins, the old hospital building was vacant.

It would later become the residence of the Wilson family. Mr. Wilson opened the Pea Ridge Telephone Company in house, and that was the initiation of modernization and expansion of telephone service in our area. We got a telephone on the farm in 1954. Those were dial phones; you made your call by whirling the dial by putting your finger in the appropriate number hole on the dial. I notice that my cell phone still says it is dialing when it is calling someone. Actually, I don't think any of us dial each other up any more, we punch in the numbers, or tap them in, and so on.

People are doing more communicating by phone technology these days of our "Staying In." Phone communication, even when it can include video, is OK, and the things we are doing to take the place of gatherings are OK, too.

But I do really miss the getting out. I always prefer face-to-face communication. I like to go out to eat at the restaurant, to see people and talk to people; I like going to church, singing together, shaking hands, sharing "how're you doin's?" I like going into the bank, greeting and being greeted, doing business at the teller's window, making dumb jokes about when they are going to have a sale on cash!

Our church has started doing church on FM radio. That's very good. But I will be very happy when we can meet together in a more usual way. Assembling is far better!

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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at joe369@ centurytel.net , or call 621-1621.