13.. "Health Situations"

Bob Zybach: So you kind of made up for your brother and sister then.

Charlie Olson: My sister never had any.

Bob Zybach: I've asked you every question that. . . Oh, I have one more question here. Doc Shell. Did you ever know Doc Shell.

Charlie Olson: I didn't get that.

13. "Health Situations"

Bob Zybach: Okay, he was later on Soap Creek, in the 1950's and 60's. I didn't know if he was an old family. I think I've asked you about every family in that whole neighborhood and all the sawmills and what you had for breakfast, so can you think of anything that we haven't discussed or anything that you'd like to see in this record, that might not have anything to do with Soap Creek, but is something that you are interested in having put into this history?

Charlie Olson: Well, I'm a little interested in health situations, because I've had to on account of my own ability to try to stay alive. When my mother was carrying me there was an old lady by the name of Baker in there. And she pretended to be an old nurse. And she told my mother to eat a lot of sugar while she was carrying me and then the baby will be strong and you will give a lot of milk and he will grow up a strong kid. And when I was born I wasn't very strong, and I was pretty much a wealding. And my kidneys apparently wasn't very good and the doctors had something that they called "Viti-or" and they persuaded or instructed my folks to get this viti-or and I took that for probably three or four years. I don't know I couldn't keep track you know of that. But it tasted quite a bit like iron and whether it did me a bit of good or not I don't know. But when I was big enough to use a pot and there would be a droplet on the floor it would turn white and it would be upstairs you know and there would be a white spot as if it had been mixed with chalk and that continued in that way until I was probably 8 or 9 years old.

Bob Zybach: So even after you stopped taking that Viti-or it kept filtering out ofyour body through your urine or something.

Charlie Olson: I don't know if that did me any good or not, but I have to kind of wonder if that did it or . Let's see, if I could give you the exact dates on it.

Bob Zybach: Well, I don't think the exact dates matter too much, because we know what Armistice day was, we know your birthday, we know about when you are in the second grade, so if you are going to work at a certain time or getting married or when your kids were born, those can be pieced together and that's what's good about these indexes is that it will allow us to put this in a real good chronological order at that time. But we are up to when you were about 8 or 9 and you were interested in the health issue, so.

Charlie Olson: I have to just kind of wonder which it was . . . if that did any good or not, but I think probably that my four miles to school and four miles back and really steep, and then probably more than that after the cows in the evenings to bring them home, and I think that did it. And the food that we'd eat, you know, out on the place like that, would be pretty fairly good, except that one thing, pork. I know the pork didn't do me any good.

Bob Zybach: How about the salt herring? Would you have that pretty often?

Charlie Olson: Every morning. Every morning it was bacon and eggs, you know. Every morning.

Bob Zybach: But how about salted herring that your father used to get?

Charlie Olson: Well, that would be any time. Any time during the day, noon or evening. I don't think that did any harm. It was pickled, vinegar and salt. The vinegar of course isn't fit to eat.

Bob Zybach: What would you have for dinner meals? You told me what you had for brea/g'st, big brealçfasts and big lunches.

Charlie Olson: Well at home. I told you what we had for lunch usually.

Bob Zybach: What kind of sandwiches were those? You said you had two or three sandwiches.

Charlie Olson: Well, they would be different, they could be raisin, they could jam, they could be butter. They could be both, one of each. And homebaked bread, you know, it's pretty solid, and you shouldn't have to eat very much of that. We'd eat until we was full.

Bob Zybach: Would you have a small dinner, or a big dinner too?

Charlie Olson: The dinner would be awfully big when we went to school. Bigger than it should be. And we felt like we had to eat it. And we'd eat too darn much. At home, I didn't eat too much at noon, potatoes, and some type of meat, eggs, maybe, meat or eggs, and bread and jam and or bread and butter. And in the evening . . . well in the

Charlie Olson: morning there would be a cereal. Always a cereal. And that cereal was mostly rolled oats. Rolled oats and then many pancakes and bacon and eggs.

Bob Zybach: How about for supper at night? After all that eating during the day would you have just a light supper?

Charlie Olson: No supper at night would usually be about the same thing as dinner. Potatoes and some type of meat, or herring. That herring would be a pretty definite thing at night. And we had too many homemade cakes.

Bob Zybach: So your mom would like to bake?

Charlie Olson: No, they were not that elaborate, no, but on some occasion of course, why that would be the type. But normally, they would just be without frosting. But pie, there quite often would be pie, pumpkin pie, and cherry pie.

Bob Zybach: So it sounds like living on the farm you. ate just about as good as anybody could eat.

Charlie Olson: We was speaking of this Witham family, and I didn't get through on that. That when I learned that cream was injurious to the extent that people use it. Now Wanda Marcks father, he was sick, and they didn't know what it was. The doctors couldn't find out what it was. And he was sitting in a chair and he ate a full meal, his wife would bring him a full meal and he would eat it. I was just a little kid and I didn't have sense enough to try to think about what maybe was wrong with him. But later on when I noticed others, I realized that the amount of cream that he was eating was probably what had finally killed him. But these Withams, it was very noticeable with them, all of them. And this older one and his wife, and then the wife's daughter, their breath was bad.

Bob Zybach: From too much cream?

Charlie Olson: It had to be. They had dairies. And their breath was so bad that I hated to be close to them. And when I had an opportunity to dance and it was a Germania or a Paul Jones and we had to change partners, why when I'd get one of them it was pretty hard because their breath was awful. But when this older guy died and she went to California, she sold quite a lot of that property between Philomath and Oak Creek. And she went to California, and I met her in Corvallis on the Street about two years later. And she stopped to talk for quite a little while. And her breath was all right. And she was just as stinkin' as any of the other ones before.

Bob Zybach: When she lived there.

Charlie Olson: She had gotten over it. She had gotten away from that cream. That's just my analysis but I disked that piece of ground between Albany and Corvallis for Johnson. Johnson was the President of a bank and he owned, I think it was 20 acres of prunes between Corvallis and Albany. And I disked that with this tractor that I told you that I got, and he had a few cows and he ate quite a lot of cream. I ate with him when I worked there and about, oh maybe three months after I had disked that, he died at the table. And I was far enough along with my noticing of things at that time that I realized that he drank to much cream.

Bob Zybach: That's, I think, every question I had, near as I can tell. We've covered and I've read through the earlier transcript we did to make sure that things I was curious about at that time have been covered. And you were interested in putting something in on health and early health, and we've got that. Can you think of anything more that you would like to have on this histoiy, Thinking that maybe your grandkids will be reading it just as much as somebody from Foresuy or somebody doing early Benton County history. Those would be the types of readers, maybe.

Charlie Olson: Well, I could have a few comments on my health.

Bob Zybach: Okay, sure.

Charlie Olson: I began to have problems pretty early and my wife never had any sugar when she grew up and when we got married why she just went overboard with it. [During a subsequent telephone conversation, Mrs. Olson took great exception to this one statement. She didn't know "Where Charlie got his idea," that, although her family was poor, her father bought 10 pound sacks of sugar, as needed, or 100 pound sacks, "when they could afford it. "j And she used it way above normal and I had used it all my life, you know. And it just got a little too much. I began to get something wrong. My solar plexus was just sore. And I finally went to Dallas, Texas. Before I went there the custodian in the high school in Philomath says "Charlie, what do you think of Doctor HoxeyT' Well, I don't know. I'd never heard of him. And he said, "Well, Mrs. So-and-so" he told me the name, "went there and she had had an operation for a goiter, and when they took that off it spread to her breast. They took her breast off. Then it went to the other breast, and they took that off, and then it

Charlie Olson: went internally, and then they took everything that they could and then they told her that she'd got just three months, or four months left to live. And she went to Dr. Hoxey and she's back, and she's well." It wasn't more than about a month or two later that I got a brochure from Tobey, Senator Tobey, and I don't know which state he was the senator of. And he had a great big picture of a starfish or a tarantula and it had a leg around the neck of every two or three or four or five people. And that was supposed to be the American Medical Association. And then he had some writing, he said "three of the best doctors that I could get came downstairs and told me my son had just four months left to live." And he had cancer, and he said "I just took him to Dr. Hoxey." And he said he's home today, and he's well and he is doing a days work and there is nothing wrong with him. Well I got to thinking about that and as time went on, things would come on to me so that if I would lean over and try to work under the dash of a bus or get under the bus and try to work underneath it, it would start to go around, and I'd have to grab it and hold it still until I could pull out and straighten up. And I wondered what the heck it could be. But finally I had to pick up a bus in Texas, I don't remember the name of the place now, but I had ordered the bus there and I figured why don't I just stop and see Dr. Hoxey, and then go from there and pick up my bus and come home. And I did, I stopped at Hoxey's. And there was about 25 people out on the lawn. It was a big three-story house, and old mansion just at the outer edge of Dallas. And when I went in and registered they told me the room, the number of the house, they arranged it for me, and that was where my bed would be, and then there was a place down here where I could eat. And the whole thing was charged to them. So when everything was over with, why I would pay them and make settlement. So I went through, they called me for every appointment, you know, and about 6 days why they called me into a room and there was a fellow about 60, rather stout, short, not fat, and he said "Don't you ever look in the glass when your clothes are off?" and I said no. "Well," he said, "you could see it." and he says "It is right there." and he leaned over and put his pencil on my stomach, right there. He says "It's about the size of a grapefruit. And you can see it without taking your clothes off, and you can feel it." and he said "I don't know if it's a cancer or a tumor. There is no difference. The

Charlie Olson: only thing is that one is malignant and the other one is benign. Either one can turn into the other. Don't let them operate." And then he went on, and after he told me well I could put my shirt back and I could see it you know and I could feel it. And he said "There's some medicine at the door, when you pay they'll give you the medicine and they'll give you some more prescriptions maybe, or tell you more maybe than I can tell you here how to use their medicine. But don't let them operate. And come back in a year. We want to see you a year from now. It will be free, but we want to check you a year from now. Don't eat anything that is made with vinegar. Don't eat anything that is made with pork grease. Don't eat pork. You can eat as much tomato juice as you want to if the seeds are out, but don't eat any tomatoes with the seeds in." And that is about all that he told me not to eat. Oh yeah, he said a little chicken or turkey once in a while, but don't eat it too often. Don't eat any pork. And you know, when I had a bump right there on the back of my knee, it was about the size of a large filbert. And it kept getting bigger and it bothered me a lot, walking around on a load of hay or tromping around on a hay mound. It'd bother me quite a lot. It went away in about two months, this lump went away, nothing wrong.

Bob Zybach: Have you just stuck with that advice ever since now? You still don't eat pork? Still don't eat

Charlie Olson: I laid off of everything that they told me I have laid off of that ever since. But there was something else that developed, and I started in to try to find out what that was. It was right back here, I thought it was a kidney and I went to a doctor. And they, none of them, seemed to be able to tell me anything. We went to the Mayo clinic and took a complete check-up. And when I got into the room, that was the last, I had only two more left after that. I came into the room and there was a guy in there probably 60, he was very dark, but the darkness seemed to be sunburn, and he just wandered around. When I came in I greeted him with "Hello Doc" and he didn't say a word. He went back and forth. I think he was in a trance. When he'd get over to the end of that bench he would stop like what the hell did I come up here for. Then he'd turn around and go back. Once in a while he'd pick something up and he'd carry it a little ways and just walked around like a darn fool. And after about 10

Charlie Olson: minutes when he passed me going that direction, he turned around on his heel and said "Take your clothes off and sit down on that stool!" It was a little round stool like some of the piano stools used to be. And I did. I couldn't find a place to put my clothes so I finally put them way over in the corner where nobody would step on them. And he went through the same thing for quite a while and then he turned again. "Now! This pain you complain about in the region of your left kidney. What do you eat when it comes on? What do you eat when it goes away?" I said, "Doc, it doesn't go away. And it doesn't seem to make any difference what I eat. When it comes on it's pretty vicious and I haven't any idea because it don't matter what I eat. It comes on." And he just threw a fit. He just threw a regular fit and went out and slammed the door. And I sat there. And the next appointment came up an hour later and I sat on that stool. And then the next one came up two hours later and I sat on that stool. And then I began to wonder. The lights flicked on and I began to wonder if they'd locked that door, and I'd be locked in. And the door opened and the guy came in that took all the preliminaries and marked them down you know that they went by. And he says, "Why Mr. Olson, are you still here?" And I said yes. "What happened?" And I started to tell him and he said "Oh, Oh yeah. That happens here quite often. You put your clothes on and I'll talk to the lady outdoors and she'll make arrangements so that they'll take you in to your next appointment, get up there as quick as you can." So I did, and they were calling me when I got up there. And there were six, about six others there, but they had been calling me for about 2 hours at times. So I went right in and when I came out I went from there to the next one, and the same thing, when I came there they were calling and I went right in. Little things, they didn't amount to anything. So, I made up my mind that they can just do a lot of damage when they act like that one did. And I wasn't gonna go back and tell him, I came here to have an examination, and I thought it was my kidney, you know because it was right in that area. And I wouldn't be able to go and just tell them to go ahead to do that, but it was my body, my health, my life. If it would have been a machine, I could have done it. So I paid my bill and we went home. And it wasn't very long after that that I went up to Doc Anderson's, our family doctor, and I said, "Doc, cut a whole right back there and take a look. I can t

Charlie Olson: my thumb within an inch of it." And he says "You never had an operation there so it can't be adhesions. I think we can find it." And he had a rig that he could insert, it had lights on it you know, and could put that up my intestines for quite a ways and see. But the electrical part of it was on the blink and it didn't work so he sent me down to have it x-rayed, and they x-rayed me, but at first they gave me an appointment and I came in for that appointment and they x-rayed me by inserting something in my blood. They x-rayed me for my kidneys, and then they contended that they was all right when they got the x-rays. So Anderson told me to go down again, he called them and told them to x-ray me for intestinal problems. And I went down there, but they made me an appointment then, and told me the date and everything, marked it down and gave it to me. And they had already started on two things that I should have already done. My breakfast that day and my dinner that day, it was about two o'clock when I went down there, that I had eaten them. But I didn't want to argue with it, I did it just as they said. And from there on, and went down there, and got an x-ray when the time came up. I had done the rest of it you know, castor oil, and enemas and lay off the food, but when they sent that to Doe Anderson and I came in, he said "There is something wrong with this. This isn't right, it is hazy." And I could have told him what it was, but I didn't want to do it because I didn't want to get into any trouble with the x-ray guys. They can burn you up and you don't know it.

Bob Zybach: Let's see, we're back to where you'd taken the stufffor your blood and they were x-raying you and you'd done everything you were supposed to do.

Charlie Olson: Well, he said there was something wrong with this one. And he called them up again, he said, "It's hazy." And he called them up again, and he sent me down there. But before he did that, if you know Doc Anderson, well you wouldn't be surprised. When he talked to them over the phone, what they said I don't know. But he said "That's a damn lie! I've known this man for years and if there wasn't something wrong with him he wouldn't be here!" And he put emphasis on it you know, and then he listened and pretty soon he just put the receiver down and he says "You can go down there now." And I went down and got another appointment. And when that came due, they gave me the whole works this time, too, so I started from the

Charlie Olson: beginning. And when I came down there, after, I had done that and it was my second date, they put me on the x-ray table, they spread my legs out and they buckled my ankles tight to that corner and tight to that corner, and they pulled my arms out spread eagle, and buckled my wrists tight, they put a lever across my solar plexis, they gave it a few pulls, you know, tighten it. I didn't say anything, it hurt but I didn't say anything. They gave it another couple. And then they elevated the x-ray table about 35 degrees with my feet in the air, maybe a little more. They went out in the hail and went on their afternoon coffee break. I could hear them go out.

Bob Zybach: Oh, they just left you there in that position?

Charlie Olson: Yeah. And I started to sweat. And the sweat would run up and down my hair and into my eyes, and after a while I began to feel a little bit hazy, and I figured maybe I should holler. Audrey was out in the room with the receptionist, you know. And I felt like I was gonna pass out. And then I stopped and figured, well if it gets real bad I'll holler. But something happened before I realized it, and after a while I began to hear cars outside and I realized, heck I've been out.

Bob Zybach: You'd passed out from being left in that.

Charlie Olson: I had no pain. But that started to come back again. And then for a few minutes, you know, why I was just right back to where I had been, and I figured this time I'd better holler, and somebody will know how to get this thing down so that it's level at least and I'm not standing on my head. And then I had a few more thoughts, and I didn't holler, I figured well with what I had put up with, and I tell you it is painful, maybe it would be all right if I don't holler and I won't know anything more about it. But I heard them come in about that time, and they let that thing down, you know, so I was level, and unbuckled, took an x-ray, and says, now you can get up and go put your clothes on.

Bob Zybach: But they didn't tell you ahead of time that they were just going to leave you strapped like that for that long?

Charlie Olson: I sat up and everything went around and around. I laid down quick, and one of them came over and turned the light up and took a look. The other one had left, gone out. He took a look and then he went out and I could hear him in the other room. And he came back in and the other guy, I could hear him on the phone. He had gotten on the

Charlie Olson: phone. And this guy came and said "Do you have these often?" and I said "Never." And "Do you have any idea what has caused it?" And I didn't want to antagonize him, because I told you, you know, what they can do to you with the x-rays. So I said "Maybe injecting something in the blood twice in succession for a kidney test could have something to do with it." "Oh, yeah, that could be." I didn't say "If you hang a guy up by the feet." But he put ice packs on my face and forehead and kept working for a while that way and I began to feel better. And after a while I sat up, and I could stay in a sitting position. And a little later I swung my feet around and let them hang over the edge of the x-ray table, and in a few minutes I slid off and went out over into the room where my clothes was. A little cubbyhole down the hail. I took that smock off that I had on, and threw it and it just plopped. Soaking wet. I put my clothes on and went out in the hail where Audrey was, and she kind of "What happened to you?"

Bob Zybach: I looked over at this receptionist, and she just sared. And I said "Why?" and she said "Why you're as white as a sheet." And then she says, "What happened?" And I told here I had an x-ray. That's all I said. And I went over and paid that woman and we went out. What did you find out was wrong with your kidney after all that.

Charlie Olson: Intestinal sclerosis. We came into Anderson's about three or four days later. And I said "Did you find anything Doc?" He didn't say anything for a few minutes and then he said "Yeah." Then he went on around, went into a little room, and he says "Come in here, you too, Mrs. Olson." And we went in there and he pointed it out. But still, a little white rose here and another little one here and another little one here and another one there and over here a big one. X-ray don't tell you much, you know that. But it told him and he knew what it was. So I said "What do you call it?" "Intestinal Sclerosis."

Bob Zybach: Was it easy to take care of at that point?

Charlie Olson: He started to doctor me and he doctored me for a month. And then he said "It's too chronic, I can't do anything for you. But, you can probably go for four years then it will turn to cancer." This was in 1962.

Bob Zybach: So he was a little bit off on his estimate. That's 28 years ago.

Charlie Olson: Well, I don't know. I've told you, you know, that I have learned what not to eat.

Charlie Olson: I've concentrated a little more on that and I have gone on with it right to this day but I do believe that I've got cancer now.

Bob Zybach: But you think that your good exercise when you were a kid and then having certain dietaiy habits your whole itfe is what kept you active and in good health this long?

Charlie Olson: I have lengthened that distance, that was supposed to be four years, I have lengthened that to from '62 to '90.

Bob Zybach: That's a 700% increase, so that's pretty good.

Charlie Olson: When you get to that point, you know, you're going beyond average. And there is no reason to get mournful and walk around and figure, and cry about it you know. I don't know if you saw Arthur Godfrey when he was on the TV.

Bob Zybach: Yeah, when I was a kid.

Charlie Olson: But he had that horse that he'd make dance. Anyway, he would sing that little theme song of his, you know, that he would try counting sheep to go to sleep but he couldn't make it. So he would start to count his blessings, then he would go right to sleep counting his blessings.

Bob Zybach: We've covered, I think everything I could think of Is there anything else that you could think of that in this tape right now that you would like to put in here? I had one other question, too. The doctor that you saw down in Dallas, Texas, you mentioned his name and the Senator that wrote about him. But I couldn't quite get the pronunciation. How was that spelled? Dr. Hoxers?

Charlie Olson: Dr. Hoxey was the name of them, but you would have to get acquainted with your American Medical Association here. When I went down there for the second time, they wanted to check me the second time. And they did that with everybody. It's free, they said "We want you to come down, we want to check you. And from now on it's free." He had already had problems. The American Medical Association had tried to take his license away from him. But in court he proved the witnesses were flakes. So they were a little bit more careful and they got a little more what would you call it, not information, misinformation. They got a little more information [bribed witnesses], and they made it, they took his license away from.

Bob Zybach: But you think that in your case he was a real good doctor and added years to your lffe?

Charlie Olson: Well, when anything as strong as the American Medical Association, it would be

Charlie Olson: pretty hard to get a lawyer that would take it and if they did they would ride that lawyer.

Bob Zybach: What year did you go to see him?

Charlie Olson: The only way that I can close to that was I went there the same time that I went to Texas to pick up a school bus. I had ordered a school bus built in Texas. There's two names that are very similar, the capital of Texas, and then this other one, I don't remember either one of them. But one of them was where they built this bus that I picked up.

Bob Zybach: Was that before World War II, or.

Charlie Olson: I went to Dallas first, you know, and got this checkup. And of course everything was okay. And I wanted to get out of there as quick as possible because Sunday came along and I didn't want to be stuck in this other joint over Sunday because I couldn't pick that bus up on Sunday. They wouldn't be open. And he [Hoxey promised me, he said, "I'll get you out so that you can make it. But we can't make any special appointments, we have to treat everybody alike." So I had to stay for my regular appointment. But I made it over there in time so that I could have got the bus but it wasn't ready.

Bob Zybach: Was that in the 1940's or 1950's when you went to see Dr. Hoxey?

Charlie Olson: The bus that I went to pick up. I can get this date pretty close. The bus that I went to pick up was a 1942 bus.

Bob Zybach: Okay. And it was brand new.

Charlie Olson: Just built.

Bob Zybach: So Dr. Hoxey, how was his name spelled?

Charlie Olson: I don't remember just exactly how. It would be spelt very simply. That started with a Dr. Lincoln.

Bob Zybach: That.

Charlie Olson: That method .

Bob Zybach: That method.

Charlie Olson: That method of treating you by having you avoid the things that you shouldn't eat plus some medicine. The medicine wasn't very much because, I, in fact, I didn't take much of it. But it left me so darn quick, that the diet was the whole thing.