Product Description

Meet Barry Ladd, a family physician who practiced medicine for thirty years in a small town in Illinois. He calls it "Our Town," because the residents, including himself, so personally identified with the community. The people were mostly farmers and mill hands who worked in nearby industry. They were, until recently, comparatively isolated. The population grew by reproduction rather than by immigration.

The typical pattern was to marry your high school sweetheart, move to a house three blocks from mama, and make babies. These children, in turn, grew up and repeated the cycle. In the thirty years that Ladd practiced in "Our Town," he delivered fifteen hundred babies and recorded one hundred and eighty thousand office visits. He delivered the babies of the babies, and took care of four generations in the same family. During his career, Ladd was a participant and an observer. He saw how personal events and decisions played out over time. He tells his readers what he! saw, heard, and felt. These are all true stories. Some are composites of several people. The names have been changed. Come, make the rounds with Dr. Ladd. But come quietly, please, you are an observer!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2028166 in Books
• Published on: 1995-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 193 pages

Review
"It's easy reading, and it's intriguing. Once opened, it is hard to put down." -- Lemont [Illinois] Notes

"Ladd's vignettes of small town Midwestern life are incisive as a scalpel, alternately funny, weird, wistful and sad." -- Chicago Tribune

He has been able to look into the soul of his subjects and translate his vision into stories. -- Downers Grove Reporter, Illinois

It's easy reading, and it's intriguing. Once opened, it is hard to put down. -- Lemont [Illinois] Notes

Ladd's vignettes of small town Midwestern life are incisive as a scalpel, alternately funny, weird, wistful and sad. -- Chicago Tribune

About the Author
Dr. Barry Ladd was educated in the New York public schools. He attended the University of New Hampshire, and later was awarded an M.D. degree from the State University of New York College of Medicine at Syracuse. He served as an intern at the Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, and as a Flight Surgeon for the United States Air Force in Japan before moving to "Our Town" to begin a medical practice that he treasured for thirty years.

Customer Reviews

Reflections worth a read
I have read many of the books by doctors about practices and these stories are a nice combination of internal and external obervations - how doctors affect patients and how patients affect doctors. Ladd is a non-egotist and really does a very thoughtful job in writing tightly, clearly and lets the reader be able to reflect as well. Of a particular genre, this is a good if not great one.

ENJOYABLE READ
I grew up in "Our Town". I remember when Barry Ladd came to join the practice of "his mentor". He was nothing like what we were used to especially with his accent and he was so tall! He was my doctor from the time I was 7 until I was well into my 20s. Later when I attended nursing school in Joliet he was one of the doctors that always had time for the student nurses, always available during his rounds to explain things and answer our questions. Reading his book brought back many memories. I always enjoyed his sense of humor and the wonderful stories he told. Thank you Dr Ladd for the enjoyable afternoon I spent reading your book!!!

Zzzzzzzzzzzz.....
The mundane, uninspired writings of a truly boring man. It's a very fast read, each story/chapter is no more than a few pages, but that's about the only good thing about it. Nothing new or surprising in any of the stories, and some of the chapters are just rants on his points of view. He tells one supposedly funny anecdote about how a patient called him up one morning at 3 am, asking, "Is it okay to give a four month-old baby milk?" and his answer was, "At three am, it is!" Nice, really nice.

Avoid this one. Don't bother.