For me it started late one winter night in the middle of a big blizzard, in the late 30’s.

According to my Dad the night wasn’t fit for man or beast to be outside.  It was snowing and had already added about a foot of new snow on top of a foot and a half already on the ground.  The temperature was near zero and a fierce wind was blowing the snow into deep shoulder-high drifts.

He had just banked the fire down for the night with a large Hickory log and was crawling into bed when Mom told him, I think it will be tonight.  A short time later she told him, you need to go for the doctor now.

At that time Dad’s only means of transportation was just what he had been born with, his feet. He said, he wrapped some old feed sacks over his shoes and around his legs to keep as much snow out of them as possible and hopefully help keep his feet warmer and It would add some traction in the slick snow.  He put an old scarf over his head under his cap and put on his heaviest and only coat and started out walking the six or so miles to town.  He said for awhile he didn’t think he could make it but after about an hour and he had made it close to halfway there, he thought he could see a light from the town, which lay at the bottom of the steep mountain. As he started down he began to think, what if the doctor was out on another call or wouldn’t come out on such a night. Should he go on or maybe turn back and try to find a neighbor woman to help.

Anyway, he said he kept going and as he approached the doctors house he saw a light burning on the side porch and just knew that the doctor was already out. He said, it was all he could do to make himself knock on the door and when it opened to ask the doctor if he could possibly make a house call tonight.

[Doctors were much different in those days.]  Dad said the Doctor didn’t hesitate but asked him if he would saddle his horse while he got dressed.  He said the doctor came out ready to go and asking for directions before he even got the horse saddled.

The Doctor on horseback made much better time than he could on foot and by the time he got home I was already there.

Of course, this isn’t a personal memory but was one told to me many times by both my mother and father.