The Rural Voice, 2001-08, Page 47WEST WAWANOSH
MUTUAL
INSURANCE
COMPANY
1879 (0 2001
' e q/ hour helping Neighbour'
529-7921
FARM SAFETY FACTS
TURNING a comer too
last or travelling too
close to a ditch can flip
your tractor over
SIDEWAYS and crush
you.
SAFETY TIPS:
■ Slow down belore turning.
■ Lock brakes together for high speed travel.
• Stay away from ditches and embankments.
■ Keep front-end loader buckets low for travel.
• Avoid crossing sleep slopes
• Turn downhill d stability becomes uncertain
YOUR LOCAL AGENTS
Frank Foran. Lucknow
Chapman Graham & Associates.
Owen Sound
Chatsworth Insurance, Chatsworth
Donald Simpson. Ripley
John Nixon, Brussels
Davis & McLay Insurance, Lions Head
Delmar Sproul lnsurance Inc Auburn
Clinton
Goderich
Lyons & Mulhern Insurance Brokers,
Goderich
McMaster Siemon Insurance Brokers,
Mitchell
Georgian Bay lnsurance Brokers,
Owen Sound
Mealord
Miller Insurance Brokers, Kincardine
Southampton
Owen Sound
Moller Insurance • Owen Sound
Sheila Ward - Wiarton
P.A. Roy Insurance Brokers, Clinton
Wingham
Banter, MacEwan, Feagan, Goderich
Orr Insurance, Stratford
Westlake - McHugh Insurance,
Zurich
John Moore Insurance Brokers, Dublin
Hemsworth Insurance Ltd.. Listowel
Kleinknecht Insurance Brokers, Linwood
Gray Insurance, Seaforth
Zehel Insurance, Stratford
Craig, McDonald, Reddon Ins. Brokers,
Walkerton
Mildmay
Hanover
Durham
Elliott Insurance Brokers, Blyth
Seaforth Insurance Brokers, Seaforth
Sholdice Insurance Limited,
Brussels 887-6100
"INSURANCE FOR FARM, RESIDENTIAL,
COMMERCIAL AND AUTO" •
Ontano Mutual Insurance Association s,A Member 01 The
528-3824
376-1774
794-2870
395-5362
887-9417
793-3322
529-7273
482-3434
524-9899
524-2664
348-9150
376-2666
538-2102
396-3465
797-3355
376-0590
371-8050
534-4962
482-9357
357-2851
524-8376
271-4340
236-4391
345-3512
291-3920
698-2215
522-0399
273.3251
881-2701
367-2297
364-3540
369-2935
523-4481
527-1610
44 THE RURAL VOICE
Book Review
30 Years on Call: A Country Doctor's Life
Reviewed by Deborah Quaile
Born in Grey County in 1888,
Robert James Tucker became a rural
schoolteacher to pay for his
university studies. After medical
service in World
War I and
Queen's Military
Hospital at '
Kingston, he
decided to leave
the city and care
for the people of
Paisley, Ontario.
Viola Huton
Tucker, his wife,
was a nurse who
left Kingston
with her husband
and settled into
the newly
purchased practise in the small rural
town. Local rural residents will no
doubt recognize the doctor's name, or
recall relationships between many of
the book's characters and their own
relatives.
Doris Pennington, second daughter to
Dr. Tucker and Viola and their first
child born in Paisley, reveals the
mishaps and joys in her new book,
Thirty Years On Call: A Country
Doctor's Family Life.
"Before my parents decided to go
to Paisley," Pennington reveals, "they
had discussed the pros and cons of a
rural practise and knew it would be a
challenge. The office was part of the
house, making our home a place of
business 24 hours a day, seven days a
week... people at the door, in the
hallway, on the phone."
Not only did the young family
need to adjust to small town lifestyle,
but also the minor inconveniences
that accompanied it. For example,
electricity was turned off in the town
at midnight, and if the doctor needed
good light to work by or required a
cup of tea after arriving home late,
the family had to resort to the old
methods of heating water and lighting
lamps. At other times, Dr. Tucker
sometimes missed the interaction and
support of city colleagues, although
he and -other rural doctors eventually
put together their own local network.
T'IiIRJY YEARS ON (ALL
A C.Nury Dorset', royally Life
D,,ris Poinirrpro,
Dr. Tucker routinely visited
people in homes, driving them to
hospital when necessary since there
was no rural ambulance service in the
early part of the century. Many of his
serious cases were farm related.
Without the frequency and
persistence of modern-day
snowplows, farmers pitched in
together to clear portions of road for
the doctor to attend emergencies.
"My father did not have office
hours; patients dropped in at any .
time... In his early years of practise,
country roads were not snowplowed
[in winter]... When alone, Dad had
only the jingle of sleigh bells, the
squeak of the runners and the cold to
keep him awake while watching for a
lantern at a gate.
"Inside the farmhouse, his mere
presence reassured the family, he was
told many times. Peeling off his
shaggy snow-covered fur coat, he
would hurry to the patient's side.
Hemorrhage or heart attack, birth or
death, he was on his own... he was
alone with his skill, knowledge, the
contents of his black grip and
sometimes, surely, with pure terror."
The family closeness is a pleasant
and tangible thing, which creates not
only an intriguing story about her
father's history, but also a personal
memoir of small town and rural life.
Birth, death, school activities,
friends and events are all captured.
The pain of loss of loved ones from a
close family unit is a measuring stick
of the depth of the bonds in rural
families.
Pennington's writing is very
moving and startling in its reality. In
a couple of instances, she shifts from
the past to present tense to further
intensify the images and invoke an
immediacy of feeling. She also uses
diary quotations, letter fragments, and
newspaper articles from The
Advocate to enhance her tale.
From the early years of her
father's childhood through to his
death in 1948, Pennington covers
each decade with general and
personal history. Particularly
poignant are the Second World War
years, with their attendant rationing,