A Patriot Remembers

A Patriot Remembers Mom’s advice still rings true

As my article for October came due, I was short on ideas. I went to a doctor recently, and inspiration struck: With all of the precautions these days with masks, alternating seating and no magazines, my mind wandered to my youth and some healthy advice from the past.

Wearing masks in the doctor’s office make so much sense. I was there for a semiannual checkup, but what about the other patients who have ailments? Since it was my general doctor, there could have been people with some illness that could spread. Wearing masks in a doctor’s office should have become the basic mode of operation many years ago. There are sick and healthy people mixed in the office. What are the chances of going there healthy and returning home sick?

My mom always said money (cash and coins) was very dirty. Think of all the people who handled that money and where it was used. My college teacher in the late ’60s made the prediction that in the future, most of our transactions would be done with a plastic card. I know of businesses today that only take credit cards.

Of all places, a hospital or medical setting is one where masks and gloves make a lot of sense.

As an 8-year-old, I spent three football fans with painted weeks in a hospital and still have faces and costumes would be bad and uncomfortable feelings just ordinary unknowns rather to this day about them. Visitors getting their five seconds of brought in germs or left with fame. I am always concerned germs, and nobody took with the people who precautions. Of all sit behind those places, a hospital by who can’t sit was one where masks and gloves would be so apFrank for five seconds. Maybe lower noise propriate, but we lived in a bubble DeSorbo from wearing a mask and earwith the idea that plugs might have “I am not sick so why some health value. should I take precautions.” A veteran of WWII once

A mask at sporting events told me that going out in the would quiet the crowd and cold weather is how you catch a maybe their behavior. Those cold. If that was truly a scientific fact, then he found the cure for the common cold. Wearing a mask in freezing temperatures makes sense to keep you warm. I know some cold days are very invigorating, and yet they make me appreciate the indoors.

I use mouthwash every day, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day, and I have not had a sore throat in so many years that I can’t remember. Since I also take an aspirin a day, likewise cold symptoms have stayed away. Moms told us that “an apple a day keeps the doctors away.” She should have also mentioned aspirin.

It is remarkable that medicine has come so far by has still been stymied by a worldwide crisis. I believe there will be a return to some degree of normalcy, and maybe some of the old tales and Mom’s advice will continue to be sound. After all, with life expectancy in the low 80’s, our children and grandchildren may be star athletes in their 60’s. Maybe this statement will become a healthy tale of the past.

The author is a Capital District resident and freelance writer and guest speaker. Contact him at fomservice.com.

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On the Bookshelf

fiction for adults

Fall days are perfect for reading

‘Anxious People: A Novel’ By Fredrik Backman

Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-ordeath situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can’t fix their own marriage. Atria Books

When Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender to the Allied forces, bringing an end to World War II, three men made a pact. After their deaths, each year on the anniversary of the broadcast, their souls would return to the Chinese village of their younger days. Amazon Crossing ‘The Haunting of H. G. Wells’ by Robert Masello

It’s 1914. The Great War grips the world — and from the Western Front a strange story emerges. In it St. George and a brigade of angels descending from heaven to fight beside the beleaguered British troops.

‘A Single Swallow’ By Zhang Ling But can there be any truth to it? 47North

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