Category: reminiscence

Members of the Human Club

I just read Dr. Moffic’s column, “Join This Club for Mental Health” in which he described the Clubhouse movement which got started in the 1940s to help those with mental health challenges to cope with their illness and, more importantly, to recover, grow, and achieve success in life.

It made wonder if there are any chapters of the Clubhouse model in Iowa. It turns out there is and it’s Carol House in Davenport, Iowa. It’s connected with the Vera French Mental Health Center. Its namesake is Carol Lujack, who was a member when the center was called “The Frontier Community Outreach Program” in the 1980s in downtown Davenport.

I was looking at the Carol Center website where you can find many interesting features of the people and activities that go on there. The April newsletter is fascinating and funny. You can find out in the April Newsletter about a few of the current members, April holidays (there’s a slew of them), and famous quotes. One of the quotes is familiar and it’s by F. Scott Fitzgerald,

“Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over,” The quote is worded in various ways, but I remember it because I used it as an inspirational quote when The University of Iowa honored me and several of my colleagues with a Feather in Your Cap award back in 2011.

This was shortly after I returned to Iowa after an unsuccessful stab at trying private practice psychiatry in Wisconsin. And it was the second time I did that—the first time was in Illinois.

Did you know that April is National Humor Month? And have you heard the joke “What kind of candy is never on time?” Choco-Late.

One April holiday is not mentioned and that’s Arbor Day, which varies according to what part of the world you’re in as planting times differ. Sena planted a couple of new trees in the back yard.

Starting new chapters of Clubhouse is a little like planting new trees. They need watering.

Red Green Show Episode: “Coup De Grass”

I watched another episode of the Red Green Show last night called “Coup De Grass.” The one flaw in watching the episodes are commercials, which were rare when I started making my own YouTube videos years ago. Now they’re about as frequent as they are on TV.

The one good thing about commercials on YouTube is that I can click the “skip ad” button, which interrupts them.

Anyway, “Coup De Grass” was good for several chuckles, but I admit I scratched my head a little over the main sketch comedy skit. It was the what the title of the episode was about, and you might get what the parodic title means here.

The introduction opens with Red Green talking about the grass seed he accidentally spilled on the paint and chemical covered floor of his garage. It was a “horticultural breakthrough” because the grass grew only a couple of inches tall, which he though he could make a fortune on.

The next two segments I overthought and realized only later that the idea involved the mutant grass growing very tall and getting smelly and sticky—like the paint and toxic ooze in the garage it sprang from.

What confused me was that, after planting the grass outside the lodge, Red and the other cast members gradually developed abnormal walking with their feet sticking to the floor at every step. They also started to turn green. It reminded me a little of the Silly Walking episode on Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Actually, the point of the silly walking is that they got contaminated by the grass, which quickly grew tall, sticky, and smelly.

So, who or what actually delivers the “coup de grass” or killing blow and who or what gets “killed?” I could take a stab at the answer, but that might be a spoiler.

Who Else Remembers the “Red Green Show”?

I was clicking through the web the other day and came across something that triggered a distant memory—The Red Green Show. It was a Canadian sketch comedy TV program that ran between 1991 and 2006.

I used to watch it and now I can’t see how I ever found the time to do that. I was in medical school between 1988-1992, and was in residency between 1992-1996. After that, I was on staff in the psychiatry department at University of Iowa Health Care.

The Red Green Show was on in the evening and it caught my attention like a couple others: Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Red Dwarf (a really quirky outer space show), which came on just before the Red Green Show. I’ve always been big on comedy, but I just don’t know how I ever found time for it. I was usually pretty tired or up all night on call.

Anyway, there’s this Red Green web site where you can watch all the episodes over the 15 years it was on—for free. The big star was Steve Smith, who played Red Green. The web site marketing all the old shows and T-shirts and whatnot is based in Overland Park in Kansas City, Kansas. Figure that one out, a Canadian TV show now selling souvenirs and Possum Lodge membership cards in Kansas City.

The show won a Canadian Gemini Award (similar to the Academy Emmy Award in America) for comedy in 1998.

If you watch one of the episodes, it’ll make you scratch your head about the notion of making Canada the 51st state, but I won’t get into it.

I had a book written by Steve Smith a long time ago but I can’t remember which one it was. I think it had a red cover. Maybe it was “How to Do Everything.” It’s a guide for do-it-yourself and self-help. That’s a hoot because I can barely tie my shoes, much less fix anything. On the other hand, neither could Red Green.

I watched the first YouTube episode from 1991 and it made me chuckle. I admit that one of the Red Green quotes, the Man’s Prayer, fits me like a fishing vest (I don’t fish!):

“I’m a man, but I can change, if I have to…I guess.” Red Green.

The Zamboni Effect

I was walking around the mall today doing ordinary old guy things: watching the Zamboni machine resurface the ice rink, which I’ve never seen before, by the way. The surface was pretty dull before the Zamboni team started. There were two kids in the seat, one young lady driving and the other young man pointing out spots she missed. They went around and around getting the thin layer of water on the whole rink while eager skaters waited to get out there. They rejuvenated the rink, got it shining like crystal and skaters spun, twirled, and had a great time. It was the Zamboni Effect.

After that, I got up and did my usual thing, looked at books in Barnes & Noble, got a bite to eat, wondered why the mall security guy was walking by the bench so often where I was sitting. After his third pass, I got up and did my best to look like a solid citizen who is aware that loitering might look sinister to some mall security guys.

And when I wandered back to the tables next to the ice rink, I sat down again because the mall security guy was nowhere in sight. While I was just zoning out watching people pass by, one of them stopped and made a funny face at me. For a half-second, he didn’t register in my memory and then he called me by name. I suddenly recognized him as a former resident in the Medical-Psychiatry training program at University of Iowa Health Care (UIHC). It was Ravneet, one of the best trainees I have ever had the pleasure to work with.

It was kind of a shock. He had left for a great position with a health care organization out in Arizona many years ago and is very successful. He and his wife and daughter were on vacation and were walking through the mall. His son is also a high-level performer in science but he was not with them today. Ravneet takes time out every so often to travel like that. I’m sure it helps rejuvenate him—kind of like how the Zamboni machine rejuvenates the ice rink–the Zamboni Effect.

We exchanged pleasantries, he took a selfie with me, and I forgot to ask him to send me a copy, probably because I was so flabbergasted at running into him at the mall. It really brightened my day. Again—the Zamboni Effect. I really felt rejuvenated.

Every now and then, we all need the Zamboni Effect. Maybe it could even help the mall security guy.

Noteworthy Black Psychiatrists on the Last Day of Black History Month

I wanted to give a shout-out to Dr. H. Steven Moffic, MD for his article highlighting the career of a notable black psychiatrist, Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, MD, who sadly died on February 24, 2025. I’m mortified that I hadn’t heard of him before now.

It reminded me of the time I mentioned another black psychiatrist I had never heard of either, Dr. Chester Middlebrook Pierce, MD, in a post about the book “Our Hidden Conversations” about a year ago.

I wondered if Dr. Pierce and Dr. Poussaint ever met. I looked this up but couldn’t find a definite link.

Dr. Moffic’s essay, in which he mentions antisemitism. also reminded me of an essay also published in Psychiatric Times in 2020 by Dr. Robert M. Kaplan, MD. The title is “Alois Maria Ott: I was Hitler’s Psychologist.”

It gives even more texture to Dr. Poussaint’s views on whether or when extreme racism should or should not be classified as a mental illness. My own residency training experience was marked by being assigned to a patient said to have schizophrenia—who angrily shouted when he saw me, “I don’t want no nigger doctor!” My faculty supervisor didn’t think I should be reassigned to an alternate patient, a decision I’m still ambivalent about.

The Pizza in a Bowl Enigma

Sena got a couple of pizza bowls and it’s quite an experience. It might be one of the things extraterrestrials would not invent because they don’t have mouths big enough to eat anything but chick peas one at a time.

Don’t get me wrong. The pizza tastes great. Has anybody figured out how to eat them? The importance of crust for pizza doesn’t occur to you until you don’t have it.

First of all (and second of all too for that matter), what is the etiquette required? How about the utensils? We tried eating them with spoons but then opted for forks. Adding a knife seems like overkill—until you find out how forks work.

You pick up the whole gooey mess and it gets all over your face. Have plenty of napkins ready, maybe even a wash cloth or a hose. I even use a knife and fork to eat pizza with a crust, which I admit some would call fastidious.

This reminds me of Pizza in a Cup. If you remember the movie “The Jerk,” which starred Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters, there’s the scene of them eating Pizza in a Cup. I can hardly believe that movie was released way back in 1979.

You can see that some of the comments below the YouTube indicate that not everybody believes the crust makes the pizza. Some even openly admit they purposely make pizza in a cup. And you can find recipes on the web for it. When I was in college, we went out for pizza with friends, one of whom blotted her pizza slice with a paper towel. I’ll bet she would have run away from pizza bowls.

Pizza in a bowl is in the same category as pizza in a cup—Foods That Puzzle You.

Old School

We were reminiscing about our elementary school days following a discussion of news article about what some educators want to do with the school day schedule. Apparently, kids are pretty sleepy in class and teachers think it’s because they’re sleep deprived. Apparently, they’re not getting enough sleep at night and the proposal is that the school day schedule ought to be pushed ahead, the day starting at 9 AM instead of 8 AM.

Maybe the kids should be off their electronic devices a little earlier in the evening.

I guess there have been studies supporting this idea for years, but of course I hadn’t heard of it. Nobody seems to be in a hurry to change the system.

What we remembered were the consequences imposed by teachers and principals when we didn’t perform up to expectations in class, or misbehaved in class or on the playground.

Sena had a little trouble with remembering the vowels, a e i o u and sometimes y. She had so much trouble with it that she had to stay after school to write that out over and over on two big blackboards. It took quite a while. That was back in the days when blackboards were big and covered one entire wall of the classroom. There was always more chalk available if she ran out. Sometimes the penalty for her not paying attention was a few sharp raps on the top of her head with a No.2 pencil. Most often it was for talking out of turn or not paying attention.

I got caught a couple of times for throwing snowballs on the playground. I think it was at least a couple of times. The consequence for this infraction was to sit in the principal’s office drawing little circles resembling snowballs on a sheet of paper. They had to be small so that it took you a long time to fill up the paper. If you made them too big, the principal made you flip the sheet over and do it again. I think if you got writer’s cramp, you had to switch hands.

My brother and I had to walk to and from school. We had to get up early and sometimes the snow was up to our knees. It was about a half-mile walk to school. One winter day, I was walking home and found a dog frozen stiff as a statue next to the sidewalk.

I spent most of time after lunch looking at the clock, wishing the hands would move faster to 3 PM, when school let out. I would walk home and because I was a latchkey kid, I just let myself in the house.

I guess moving the time up so that kids can be more awake during the morning wouldn’t hurt anything. Maybe the curriculum will be simplified a little bit too. Things like geography could be easier. You could change the name of the Gulf of Mexico (or is it the Gulf of America now?) to something that makes more sense—like the Gulf of Water.

If you can’t learn that, maybe you need to have your head rapped with a No.2 pencil.

Super Bowl Commercial “Mean Joe Frank” 2025 Looked Familiar!

We watched the Super Bowl last night and one of the many commercials (always a big thing) looked vaguely familiar only after Sena pointed it out. It was the Fareway Frank commercial about Fareway stores. It was a reprise of the famous 1979 Coca-Cola commercial with Mean Joe Green, defensive tackle for the Pittsburg Steelers and a kid. When you compare them, the similarities are obvious. There are two Fareway commercials that are the same, but have different titles, one of them being “Mean Joe Frank.”

The Hey Kid, Catch commercial with Mean Joe Green featured a 9-year-old kid named Tommy Okon. I couldn’t find a name for the kid in the “Mean Joe Frank” version.

But you can find film information on Turner Classic Movies titled “The Steeler and the Pittsburgh Kid” which is based on the commercial. The kid is Henry Martin who later starred in the movie, “E.T. The Extraterrestrial” (1982).

This led to reminiscence of Fareway Store in Mason City, Iowa. I used to walk to Fareway to get groceries and walked back carrying at least two big paper sacks. My arms were always pretty sore when I got home. I used a wagon later on, but had to be careful crossing the railroad tracks on the way back to ensure the eggs didn’t break.

There are Fareway stores all across Iowa and several neighboring states now, but the first one opened in Boone, Iowa in 1938. It popularized the idea of shoppers picking out their own items from the shelves rather than letting a store employee pick them out from the shopper’s list. The store name was inspired by what was sold (“fare”) and treating customers and employees fairly.

The Fareway Frank character was called Forrest Frank in 2024 although it looks like the company has settled on Fareway Frank.

The other Iowa connection worth mentioning is that rookie defensive player for the Philadelphia Eagles (Super Bowl winners), Cooper DeJean, who played for the University of Iowa Hawkeye football team, made a pick-6 interception touchdown in the game.

While the Fareway Frank version of the Super Bowl commercials line-up didn’t make the short list (or any list for that matter) of favorites, it sure did bring back memories for us.

Black History Month 2025 ASALH Theme

This is Black History Month and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) theme this year is African Americans & Labor.

When I look back on my youth, I think of my time learning on the job to be a survey crew technician and drafter for a consulting engineer company in Mason City, Iowa, Wallace Holland Kastler Schmitz & Co. (WHKS & Co.).

I was probably not the first black person to work for WHKS & Co. One other black person who was one of very few role models for African Americans was a guy named Al Martin, who I’ve posted about before.

My time there was in the 1970s and there were not many job opportunities open to minorities. I learned more than just the skills specific to the job. I learned that I could succeed in life, which was valuable later on. I developed the confidence to seek other opportunities which included going to medical school and becoming a physician.

Although racism was not absent at WHKS & Co., there was just enough open-mindedness to support my ambition to move forward in life despite the barriers to success in society that existed.

I think the ASALH theme for Black History Month in 2025 is vital to reflect on in the present day. People from all walks of life can relate to this.

Carter G. Woodson is considered the father of Black history and was the founder of Black History Month.

Keep Hope Alive

Just a reminder, Isabel Wilkerson will be giving her presentation, ” “Caste: How the hierarchy we have inherited restricts our humanity” from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5, in Prem Sahai Auditorium (room 1110) in the Medical Education and Research Facility.

I’m about halfway through her book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” It’s a very difficult read, as I anticipated. It’s full of horrendous descriptions of what those in lower castes suffered, whether from the time of the Nazis, India, or America. I can read it only for a short while and then I have to put the book down and take a break. I get so I feel like I need an inspirational lift.

And it just happened the other night. I heard a poem on TV I’ve heard before, “I am Somebody.” Although it was written in the 1950s by Reverend William Holmes Borders, a civil rights activist and senior pastor at Wheat Street Baptist Church, it was recited by Reverend Jesse Jackson in 1963.

I remember seeing Reverend Jackson cry the night Barack Obama was elected President in 2008. I never heard the original speech Reverend Jackson gave in 1988, during the second time he was running for President himself.

I think it was probably because I was focused on starting medical school at The University of Iowa. I began my studies in August of 1988 in what was then the summer enrichment program for minority students.

One of Reverend Jackson’s speeches contained the other memorable cry, “Keep hope alive!” You can hear it and read the transcript.

You must not surrender! You may or may not get there but just know that you’re qualified! And you hold on and hold out! We must never surrender!! America will get better and better.

Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive! On tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive! I love you very much. I love you very much. —Rev. Jesse Jackson, 1988.