Revere, Remember,Have Some Noise And Achieve Elita Sohmer Clayman

Do What Makes You Happy, Escape the Noise. I heard this line on a soap opera I watch every day. Contrary to what critics think of soap operas, they do have some intelligent thoughts on life uttered lots of time. The characters many times are images of people we know, other times, they are not images of normal people. However, if they all were everyday folks, we would not tune in to them because I always said that “if everyone is happy on the story, we would have no need to want to watch the storyline daily.” On a soap opera (called that because in the old days, they were sponsored by soap companies like Proctor and Gamble) and therefore were labeled soap operas.

If there is too much happiness between characters and no conflict, then it becomes boring and we do not discuss it with our friends or family after an exciting episode. Once, when I went to the beauty salon, a worker there asked me what happened that day on the story. I started to tell her and an old lady hollered out “my, you girls are gossips, talking about your friends that way.” I laughed and told her it was not our friends, it was a story.

Sometimes, when we are young, we cannot accomplish what makes us happy then. We either have to wait until we are more mature, because it is not in our realm of attainable adventures. When I graduated from high school, I wanted to go to New York City to become a fashion model. Dad said no way, and in those days when your parents said no, it was no. He thought it a dangerous environment for a seventeen year old girl and even though my aunt said I could live with her and my uncle while trying it out, no was no and I listened because I had to and also because we respected our parents’ wishes for us. Those days are gone and we parents of the seventies and eighties, supported our children in whatever they wanted to experience and if we could afford to, we helped them to gain what they desired and yearned for.

In my day, very few girls, if any became doctors. It was a man’s field and now I have many female doctors giving me their expertise and kindness. Also, very few girls became a lawyer that was rare. Now there are many female attorneys. Girls rarely became pharmacists and all of the girls that did usually wound up marrying a fellow pharmacist they met in school. I remember when I saw the first lady pharmacist in a Read’s Drugstore in about 1948; I was amazed at her fulfillment and achievement being a female. The first woman gynecologist was a marvel to me too. All the years of my married life and having two children, it all occurred with a male doctor. In the last few years, I also use now and then a female dentist, when my regular male one is on vacation. It is all a marvelous feeling for us ladies and especially us older ones, to see females who have attained these professions.

When I was about thirteen, there was a lady doctor and in those days, they were not called internists like they are named now. They were spoken of as regular doctors. They did everything in checking you over and diagnosing every possible thing that was happening to you and following up on it. If you needed a dentist, you went to one, if you needed an eye checkup; you went to an eye doctor. They the ‘regular’ doctor took care of most everything else. They would look at a cut, a burn, a pimple, a rash and tell you what to do. You did not go to a dermatologist and only went to a throat doctor, if the regular one told you needed your tonsils taken out. There were not a lot of specialties then, though your parents if they could afford it had a pediatrician for your young years. The lady doctor was married to a chauffeur. She had a walk-in practice in an old, big house on the main street. You walked in, signed your name and waited for your turn. She had no secretary, no technicians. She did it all herself. You could wait hours to be seen and she was a tiny woman and when she said something, you obeyed. She was a rarity in those days of 1947 and her waiting room barely had an empty seat for a patient to wait. That is how busy she was and what a fine reputation she had. She was stern, but still kind. She made no house calls, you went to her office or you did not use her services. You paid her when you left, no insurance, no billing to you. You knew when you went there, that the fee was payable in cash only, at the end of the visit.

Ours pediatrician when I was up to about twelve, was named Dr.Goldberg and he made house calls as all doctors did in that time. If you were sick, you did not go to their office and sit and wait or have an appointment to see him. He came to you. I remember him coming to the house when I was about seven and he wrote a prescription for a medicine. I said to him “my you have terrible handwriting, if you were in my 2^nd grade class, you would fail penmanship.” He laughed and took his pen and tried to write neatly, he could not. Most doctors still write in an illegible penmanship and that makes it very difficult for the pharmacist to read. I use to say they took a course called No Good Handwriting 101 when they went to medical school. Some prescriptions are now printed out from the computer in the doctor’s office and that is helpful to the pharmacist to alleviate errors.

Females have come a long way. I remember Mom had a cousin who became a lady stockbroker. We were stunned at her choice of careers and she was in an unusual profession for that time. We go to a female podiatrist and I have always taken care of my feet because I danced and never knew of one. She and her husband are both in the same profession.

Now days, anyone can become what they want to be and to be anything you desire is a marvelous achievement. Parents do not say no like when I wanted to become a fashion model.

Yesterday, the Preakness was going on here and it is probably about five miles from my house. I have been once to the Preakness in 1952 when I was eighteen. Uncle Maurice, Mom’s older sister who passed on when she was thirty-eight and I was about three years old, this was her husband and he took Mom and me to the Preakness. He was quite well to do in those days and our seats were next to those of Margaret Truman, who was the daughter of the current president Harry S. Truman in 1952. I could not believe my eyes who we were sitting next to. Of course, she was in an enclosed box of seats, but I was actually right next to the enclosure and I could not stop staring at her. The press had often vilified her as to her looks and to her singing voice, because she aspired to be a vocalist. She had a nice voice and the word was circulated that she got jobs because of the president being her father. She was a very pretty girl and perhaps in those days, she did not photograph as well as she looked. I was so excited and Uncle Maurice bought Mom and Elita each a ticket which became a winning ticket because the winner was Blue Man and Uncle M. had bought those tickets. We each won four dollars and that was a nice amount of money and a nice ending to an exciting day. I went to my first and only Preakness, sat next to the President’s daughter and had the winning horse claim victory. All my girlfriends were so envious of the trip I had made that Saturday afternoon in 1952. That is my claim to Preakness history. Uncle Maurice knew that I loved the color blue and the horse’s name was blue and he chose that one for me. It was an exhilarating, exciting and adventuresome afternoon.

So as the soap opera actress said one afternoon last week, do what makes you happy, escape the noise and most of all keep these memories tucked away in your mind and bring them forward, talk about them and let them enhance your life. Sometimes, there may be noise associated with the happy times, like the Preakness was full of lots of clamor, but keep in mind these memories. Robert Southwell said “a mind is an empire.” An empire is your kingdom, your domain. Your thoughts and experiences from now and the past are the road to your life. Travel the miles of your life with happiness and even some noise, noise of laughter, happy tears and fun times. Revere, rejoice and remember the special moments.