Expectations, Memories, and a Few Things Learned: Vignettes from a Good Life Lived to the Best of My Ability

By Dr. Ed Stevenson

This collection of memories is meant to be easy reading, hopefully humorous at times, devoid of the confusing and often depressing effects of “wokeness”, “cancel culture”, various “isms”, sex, violence, partisan politics, and other things that interfere with our God-given opportunity for living a good life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781665579575

Dr. Ed Stevenson

Dr. Stevenson, a retired pediatrician, was nine when his family moved from Trenton, New Jersey to a small town in Jackson Township, New Jersey situated on the edge of the Pine Barrens, the home of the notoriously evil New Jersey Devil. In 1968 he graduated summa cum laude with a BS in pre-medicine from Clemson University, a place that he claims was the beginning of the rest of his life. After a year at Clemson doing research in environmental systems engineering, he attended Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia and received his MD degree in 1973. Although he was in the naval reserve he was allowed to do his first year of a pediatric residency at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, Alabama before going on active duty in the navy where he served as a general medical officer, a United States naval flight surgeon, and a pediatric and adolescent medicine specialist. In 1981 he was honorably discharged from the navy and moved to Carrollton, Georgia where he started what was to eventually become a highly respected five physician and one nurse practitioner practice. Taking care of infants, children, and young adults is what he did. However, that is not who he totally is. In short, he is a Christian, a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a great-grandfather; a proud naval veteran; a private pilot; a coast guard captain (25 tons); a private investigator; a hunter and a fisherman; a conservationist; an animal lover and more. He always had great expectations about his future, and he encourages others to have the same, and to deal with unhappy memories, leave them behind, to focus on tomorrow, and to make some lasting memories. He says this book is an effort to share good memories, to teach a thing or two, and to bring a little humor into the short time that we all have between the two eternities.

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© 2023 Dr. Ed Stevenson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

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and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7958-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7957-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023900106

Published by AuthorHouse    01/12/2023

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Contents

About the Author

About the Illustrator

List of Illustrations

About the Title

Dedication

Introduction

IN THE BEGINNING

Day Care

Mothers Know Everything

Economics

Big Sisters Are Important

Rowan Elementary School

Summer on the Block, or I Should Be Dead

LIFE IN THE STICKS

Switlik Elementary School

4-H

Walter Mitty

Pets

Snow Days

Sock Hops

Prom Night

Laney

CLEMSON

An Unceremonious Arrival

Churches

The Tiger Newspaper

The Relief Pitcher

James Bond Comes to the Bible Belt

With Highest Honors and More

Bug Dynamics

EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Tom

Naked Dead People

Amazing

Don’t Eat the Salad

The Color Red

Black Silk Panties

Please Don’t Tell My Mother

King Cotton

Doctor Joe

BIRMINGHAM

A Solid Gold Start

The Jerk

Dragon Slayer

302, Cancel Your Call

THE NAVY: IT’S NOT JUST A JOB; IT’S AN ADVENTURE

Lieutenant, Medical Corps, United States Naval Reserve

USS Sylvania (AFS-2)

Welcome Aboard

Permission Denied, or More Than One Way to Fight a War

Seeing Spots

Eye Color

The Streaker

The Great Wallenda?

No Means No?

Incredible

Just a Suggestion

Naval Aerospace Medical Institute, Pensacola, Florida

First in Jets

Rudder Shaker

WW1 German Ace Max Immelmann

Cleanup on Runway 7 Left

A Perfect Takeoff?

More Than Just Tailpipes

Air Wing One Aboard the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67)

Small World

Horses of a Different Color

Bear Hunt

That’s Why They Call Them Crazy

Man Overboard, This Is Not a Drill

Ensign Jones

Told You So

They Only Do That on TV, Harry

Rabies

Catastrophic Engine Failure

Courage

Air Wing One Aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69)

Shakedown

Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, Virginia

Goodbye to Operational Medicine

Naval Medical Center, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina

I Chose Wisely

AFTER EVERYTHING NAVY

Carrollton, Georgia

A Pediatric Desert

Practicing Medicine for Fun and Profit

Bananas

Safer in an F-14A Tomcat

Single-Engine Land

Sherlock Holmes?

Amelia Island, Florida

The Florida House

A Six-Pack

I Always Wanted to Be a Cowboy

Population 93

Night Bear/Nightmare

On the Menu

Always Look Where You’re Going

I Ain’t Lion

The Dark Continent

On Shooting a Bush

OSE

From Sleeping in Trees

NO LIONS, TIGERS, OR BEARS, BUT …

Just About Everything Else

All Dogs, and Probably Cats …

THREE EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN

No Stars for Captain Mitchell

John Henry Burson, III, PhD, MD, LTC US Army (Retired)

A $400 Friendship

MY VERY, VERY BEST MEMORY

Patricia Rose, or Seduced by a Frosty

ONE MORE THING

Cover: Although Alan Kuykendall of Carrollton, Georgia, admits that he has never seen the New Jersey or Leed’s Devil, this is what he imagines he looks like. Alan is also responsible for the rest of the book’s illustrations.

Amazing photographic and other help courtesy of Kash and Sherry Johnson of Classical Photography, Carrollton, Georgia.

About the Author

Dr. C. Edward Ed Stevenson, Jr., a retired pediatric and adolescent medical specialist, was nine when his family moved from Trenton, New Jersey, to a small town located in the Pine Barrens in Jackson, New Jersey, near Lakehurst Naval Air Station, Fort Dix, and McGuire Air Force Base. Where he grew up was, and some say still is, the home of the notoriously evil New Jersey or Leed’s Devil. He attended Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, graduating with highest honors, or summa cum laude in 1968. He was a member of the Clemson fencing team for four years. After a year of graduate work in environmental systems engineering at Clemson and after coauthoring his first professional paper, he attended Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, receiving his MD degree in 1973.

Although he was in the Naval Reserve, he was allowed to do his first year of a pediatric and adolescent medicine residency at The Children’s Hospital of the University of Alabama in Birmingham, Alabama before going on active duty in the navy. In the navy, he served as the medical officer aboard an oiler (a refueling ship) and as the medical officer aboard a combat fast stores ship (a supply ship), making a major Mediterranean deployment aboard the latter. His commanding officer aboard the supply ship, a pilot, talked him into training as a flight surgeon, which he did.

After six months of training at Naval Aerospace Medical Institute (NAMI) in Pensacola, Florida, Dr. Stevenson was designated a naval flight surgeon in December of 1975 and was given orders to Air Wing One, which was homeported at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia. While attached to Air Wing One, he completed an intensive six-week training program in operational anesthesia and served as a medical officer observer at the United States Naval SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape) School in Brunswick, Maine. He also made major deployments aboard the carriers John F. Kennedy (CV-67) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) to the Caribbean, North Atlantic, and the Mediterranean, and he accumulated many hours of flight time as special crew in various aircraft including the F-14A Tomcat, the KA-6D Intruder, the E-2C Hawkeye, the EA-6B Prowler, and various helicopters. He proudly reports that he had twenty-five cat shots (catapult launches) and, happily, twenty-five traps (arrested landings) while aboard the Kennedy. After serving as an air wing flight surgeon for two years, he received orders to serve as a flight surgeon at Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, Virginia, now known as Joint Expeditionary Base—Little Creek, home of several ashore and afloat commands including Naval Special Warfare Group 2 and its SEAL teams Two, Four, Eight, and Ten.

After six months at Little Creek, he finished his pediatric and adolescent medicine training and coauthored a second professional paper at Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1978–1980. His last year in the navy was spent as a staff pediatrician at the naval hospital at Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville, North Carolina, home of the Second Marine Division. While at Camp Lejeune, he also held an appointment with the teaching staff of East Carolina University School of Medicine. Though it was interesting work, Dr. Stevenson always looked forward to his Wednesday afternoon outings with Second Tank Battalion. He loved his marines. In 1981 then-commander Stevenson received an honorable discharge and moved to Carrollton, Georgia, where he joined the staff of the local hospital and eventually began and grew a private pediatric and adolescent medicine practice (Carousel Pediatrics, P.C.) to a highly respected five-pediatrician-and-one-nurse-practitioner organization. This he did while serving in several medical staff leadership and board positions, including chief of staff.

He says he can’t sing or dance, doesn’t cook, won’t play chess or backgammon as it takes too long to lose, or play anything else other than a CD. He does, however, do his own yard work as his health permits, tries to keep up with his wife’s honey-do list, watch Clemson football, and enjoy traveling. He has tried, unsuccessfully, to keep his wife in line. He and his wife have, over the years, cared for horses, goats, dogs, cats, guinea fowl, peafowl, tropical fish, a potbellied pig, honeybees, and a cow who knew how to jump field fences.

Dr. Stevenson is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics, previously held a medical license in Florida, and though retired (since 2009) he is still licensed to practice medicine and surgery in Georgia. Dr. Stevenson and his wife, Pat, a retired registered nurse and former medical practice administrator, own a small vacation home on Amelia Island, Florida, and previously owned a small home (the Ranch) in Bondurant, Wyoming, population ninety-three according to the 2010 census, where they enjoyed being a cowboy and a cowgirl.

Although taking care of infants, children, and young adults is what he did, that is not who he totally is. In short, he is a Christian; a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a great-grandfather; a patriotic naval veteran; a licensed private pilot; a previously licensed Coast Guard captain (twenty-five tons); a previously licensed private investigator in Georgia and Florida; a hunter and a fisherman; a conservationist; an animal lover; and more. He is a member of the Little River Gun Club and Safari Club International, and he and his wife attend Victory United Methodist Church in Bowdon, Georgia, when their health permits. He also recently completed a one-month Samaritan’s Purse mission trip to the village of Macha, Zambia. He says his trip to Zambia was both educational and rewarding and further convinced him that he lives in the best country in the world.

Dr. Stevenson and his wife of thirty-five years have six children—two from his previous marriage and four from her previous marriage. A daughter, Anna (or Annie as her mom called her), the younger of twins, passed away in March of 2020 at fifty years of age after losing her battle with cancer. She is sorely missed. The Stevensons are also blessed with seventeen grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

As a retired gentleman and lady, Dr. and Mrs. Stevenson are trying to grow old gracefully, travel as much as their health allows, enjoy their family as much as possible, enjoy their cats, and enjoy their free time.

About the Illustrator

Alan Kuykendall, artist and sculptor, is a longtime resident of Carrollton, Georgia, who has degrees in both the arts and education. In the late ’70s, he opened his own art studio in Carrollton. He considers himself primarily a muralist, but over the years, he has diversified into many other areas of artistic expression. He is involved, through the Carrollton Cultural Arts Center and the City of Carrollton, in set, stage, costume, and production design. He has recently focused on a line of sculpture work that revolves around fairytale doll sculptures. He is also an incredible caricature as well as a portrait artist. His art can be seen locally in Carrollton, throughout the state of Georgia and other states, in a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas, and in France and other countries. He has illustrated multiple books and book covers, and he has illustrated two of his own books. Other interests include mathematics, science, theology, gardening, cooking, making musical instruments, playing the flute, and learning how to play the banjo.

The above, he says, is only a small sample of the trouble he has gotten himself into and the adventures he has had.

List of Illustrations

1. A Special Flower for a Very Special Lady

2. License to Carry Not Required

3. Sneezy

4. Go Tigers!

5. Red Vinyl

6. Sir Calculator

7. It’s Not Just a Job, It’s an Adventure!

8. 53 Degree Chocolate Milk

9. I’ve Got It, Doc

10. 85 Aircraft Help to Project America’s Sea Power

11. Bear Hunt

12. Next Refueling in Twenty Years

13. Healing Bodies, Training Minds

14. A Few Good Men and Women-Navy Medicine

15. Carousel Pediatrics, P.C.

16. Home of the Modern Shrimping Industry

17. The Ranch

18. Ambush!

19. Don’t Let Them Step on Your Foot

20. Live Chicken Anyone?

21. Medicine Man (Doc)

22. The Navigator

23. Make Mine Chocolate

About the Title

As Louis L’Amour once implied, life is about expectations and memories. This concept is simple and easy to understand, and it’s healthy. Too often nowadays, people lose themselves in blind, partisan, political bickering; distortions of reality; limiting of free speech, especially that of people they don’t agree with; canceling what is offensive to them; group think; name-calling; and wokeness. All these make life complicated, difficult, and hard to enjoy. All are a waste of time and energy and rob us of the finite period of time that we spend between the two eternities.

We need to live productive lives to the best of our abilities. We need to look forward to the next sunrise, and we need to expect wonderful things. If we do, we are sure to create memories. Unhappy memories can be dealt with and left behind, and the worthwhile memories can be and need to be kept as they are the only things that we will have as Mother Nature takes her toll, and the opportunities to make more memories and to take comfort from them diminishes.

Expect good things from life and make memories. Don’t waste time on things that prove to be, as the sun slowly sets, unimportant.

This collection of memories is meant to be an easy to read and insightful account of adventures embraced and a life lived to the best of my ability. It is meant to exemplify what life should really be about. It is about a life where humor is easily seen when going about living from day to day, and about a few lessons learned.

It is wise to remember what Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, said about the time spent in this life. To paraphrase, it’s not a man’s working hours that are important, it’s his leisure hours that are important. Most good memories, I believe, are made during our leisure hours.

Dedication

To my wonderful wife, Pat, without whom I would not be who I am today, and without whom I would not be complete.

001_A%20Special%20Flower%20for%20a%20Very%20Special%20Lady_031.psd

A Special Flower for a Very Special Lady

Introduction

We are born, and we die. However, the time spent between these two eternities can be and should be noteworthy for one reason or another. During this time, to paraphrase Louis L’Amour, we often have expectations and, along the way, make some memories—some of which are worth remembering and others not. All these memories help to define life and all we can learn from it, if we are lucky, even if we just learn what not to do. The painful, embarrassing, or just plain stupid memories we should deal with and put behind us. Some we should treasure and keep as these might be the only things that we have left before Mother Nature takes her toll and the opportunities to create new memories or relive old ones diminish. Memories can be a comfort when not much else is, just as reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.

I was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the last of three children and the first and only boy in my extended family. It wasn’t until much later in life that I realized why my grandfather always called me his favorite grandson.

My mother and my father divorced when I was about two years old. I remember growing up in my maternal grandparents’ house where we ate our meals in our basement apartment (right next to the coal bin) and slept upstairs right next to the attic. I was raised by my mother, her mother, my two older sisters, and my mother’s father. My mother’s father was a significant person in my life, and I have many good memories of him. He had many unpleasant, and even depressing, memories, as I learned, but it was obvious that the good memories that he shared with us far outweighed them. I enjoyed listening about his adventures as a justice of the peace, a small restaurant owner, a game warden, a constable, a private investigator, a volunteer fireman, an event organizer, and an all-around jokester. I learned about the importance of making and keeping good memories from him. His life overall was a good and well-lived life.

We were poor, though I didn’t know it, but my family never felt like victims. Our clothes had many patches (my grandmother was a seamstress), but they were always clean, as were we (soap and water were cheap according to my mother). We were never really hungry even though supper occasionally consisted only of sugar bread (bread with butter and sugar on it) or Trenton Oyster Crackers (hard, mostly round crackers about half the size of a Ping-Pong