Having been restricted from taking a full 2nd year class load for medical reasons, I chose to take a 12 wk microbiology summer course offered at U of M in Ann Arbor. It turned out to be one the most enjoyable experiences I had in medical school
The professors were rational and graded fairly and my fellow students were friendly and we socialized freely. Ann Arbor is a beautiful college town and being in Michigan did not exhibit some of the racial prejudice that I witnessed in Bloomington and Indianapolis. The students taking the course were not all medical students some were in pharmacy or other fields and came from across the country.
The microbiology department was highly respected nationally and that made their summer session so coveted. An added bonus to the course was that the last 2 weeks were devoted to parasiteology which at IU was a whole quarter and taught by a real prick we called “Stools Headly” since he had a fixation on parasite ovum in stool samples. But my joy was dampened when I received an A for my summer work but he would not accept my grade as a substitute for his course, even though the Michigan course was recommended by the micro dept. He required that I take his class as a junior with 2nd year sophomores the coming year. If I had been able I would have gladly transferred to U of M. By the way having more asshole professors did not end with him.
Sometime a chance encounter can result in a meaningful experience. Larry one of my fellow students in the course was from Arkansas and when he found out I was from Indiana asked did I know Dr Minton. Who as a matter of fact, was the chairman of the Microbiology Dept. Dr Minton was also the son of a Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton. Besides being a microbiologist, he was a world renown Herpetologist. Larry went out to his car and brought up to the room an invention of his “ Pilstrom Snake Tongs” It looked like a pole with a hooked jaw and a squeeze handle. He asked if I would take one back to Dr Minton when I returned to IU and see if he would endorse it’s use. I said I would be happy to do that.
Over the summer Larry and I use to hang out at a student beer joint called the “Pretzel Bell” and later he showed me how to catch poisonous snakes. We would go out at night to one of the many lakes and ponds with waders and a spot light and catch water moccasins with his tongs which he sold for their venom to a herpetarium near Lansing, for a fee that he split with me. sometimes $40-$50 a night each.
When I got back to Indiana, I showed the tongs to Dr Minton who shrugged and said he only need a forked stick and quick hands to catch a snake. So I kept the tongs for years until they were lost. They were great for reaching things in remote places. I never found out if Larry ever got a patent and I never saw him again; but that was one of those unforgettable encounter in life you don’t forget.
The other unforgettable thing that summer was I got engaged and married a girl from Indianapolis in Sept just before I was to start my 3rd year….the clinical years were beginning.
My boyhood priest Monsignor Mootz married us in Holy Angels Church and we moved into a two bedroom apartment for Blacks only called Barrington Heights on the far southeast side of town.
This turned out to be kind of an upward bound housing complex that included postal worker, Army Finance Center employees and a mix of students at the reasonable rent of $45 dollars a month.
Here I met life long friends an older couple Fred and Stella, both were Army Finance Center employees. He was also jazz saxophone player from St. Louis and that was a real bond with us.
Stella could really cook and since they didn’t have any kids she would invite us over practically every weekend.
We had a lot in common and many a night we would sit up with him playing sax and me on bongos jamming away.
My old friend from Evansville, who escaped the hand grenade attack with me, Joe lived out there too and was working as a butcher at exclusive meat shop. He drove the delivery truck and many a night we all ate prime steaks he managed to secret out.
Getting back and forth from Barrington to the other side of town was a real problem. The bus service was practically nil and if your car was not working you had to hitch a ride. The complex was built adjacent to a railway yard and if they were making up trains you could be stuck at a crossing for literally hours. Many a night I fell asleep waiting for a train to pass with 200 plus cars. I lived there and survived for 2 years until I graduated.
Barrington was like an oasis far removed from the stress on the IU campus and the run down housing that existed for Blacks elsewhere in the city. And it gave all of us who lived there a sense of community spirit and friendships that followed some of us to the present day. I would venture to guess that a large number of prominent Indianapolis Black citizens got there start in Barrington.
