“Doc Solly” would have handled the measles epidemic and would have pounded RFK Jr into submission
His official name was Dr. Charles Solomon, M.D., but in the small town of Lilly in the 20th Century, we knew him simply as “Doc Solly.”
In those days, family doctors made house calls, gave out their own pills by begging drug salesmen to give him some freebies, and would give us shots for everything from the flu to every vaccine that was available.
We asked no questions — in truth, most of us were afraid of Doc Solly, but we knew that if we allowed him to give us one of those shots — often, in the butt — and took his pills until they were gone, we would recover from whatever ailment was dragging us down on that day.
He diagnosed me from the last seat at St. Brigid’s
During my seventh and eighth grade years, I developed something that was dragging my neck to one side. My parents had noticed it, but Doc Solly pulled me aside when he was giving us our school physicals and told me to take off my shirt.
I was not thrilled with that, but he looked at my back. “I thought you might have a curvature of the spine, but I guess not,” he said.
However, he was so concerned that he called my mother and told her to take me to an orthopedic physician.
Long story short, he knew something was wrong, but did not have the skills to properly diagnose it. I was suffering from a Wry Neck, which John Hopkins explains is “a painful condition where the neck muscles spasm or the spine joints lock, causing the head to twist, tilt, or become stuck at an awkward angle.”
They found an orthopedic surgeon named Dr. Davidson in Johnstown, and he recommended surgery, which corrected the problem.
But, the recovery started with Doc Solly.
Personality
Solly was gruff and tough, and we knew better than to cross him. However, we loved the fact that when we had anything wrong with us, he could help us.
While he would be considered a GP today, he also delivered all four of the Conrad children among the more than 3,000+ plus that he brought into the world. In those days, the general practitioner could do it all.
And what I know today is if we had more people like him today, those anti vaxxers like RFK would be pummeled into submission.
In my dreams, I could see Doc Solly sitting in front of a Congressional committee growling at those who angered him by spreading conspiracy theories about vaccines. And then standing up and grabbing RFK by his collar and pounding him into submission in front of the country.
We did not like the vaccine shots that gave us a little scar on our arms, but we knew that he was giving us protection against deadly diseases. Our parents had confidence in medical science, and they did not question it.
I remember Dr. Jonas Salk providing his polio vaccine to us in small cubes of sugar so that we did not have to live in an iron lung. Fear does that to people.
Today, we need a Doc Solly to stand up and again require vaccines for all students entering school so that we do not have epidemics like we have in Pennsylvania right now. I can visualize him slamming the anti-vaxxers because they were destroying lives for children and adults because of their conspiracy-addled brains.
It is a good day to day, “Thanks, Doc Solly. We owe you a great deal.”
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