Abernethy One of NC's First Modern Doctors

The North Carolina Medical School (originally the old Presbyterian Hospital) as it appeared in Charlotte near the turn of the twentieth century.
The North Carolina Medical College as it made its first appearance on the campus of Davidson College in Davidson in the 1890s.

After World War I when returning American soldiers suffered the plague of the "Spanish" flu (as it was then called), Dr. Miles Burwell Abernethy of Reidsville, NC, was put on the U.S. Department of Health's list of physicans approved to minister on troop ships in New York harbor and elsewhere. Only doctors trained in modern medical practice were so honored. He was called to duty in New York.

Miles Burwell Abernethy first took premed courses at Davidson College under the tutelage of Dr. J.P Munroe, who advertised those classes as early as 1896, when "Burwell" (as he was called) was a farm boy of 15. Probably Dr. Munroe recruited him as an undergraduate while he was still a promising day student, living on a farm (property now under Lake Norman) in Cornelius.

After the clinical section of the Medical College moved its upper classes to Charlotte in 1902, Dr. Abernethy must have moved with it and been among its first students, as he graduated around 1905. Family descendents know why the move to Charlotte was significant for him: while he was a student in the building on West Trade Street, he met a young woman then studying music at Charlotte Female Seminary (aka Queens College) who was to become his wife in 1907.

The Medical College existed in Charlotte for a scant 11 years, but that was time enough for Dr. Abernethy to see Edna Whisnant not far from her home near the College wheeling Isaac Marshall, her much younger brother (born in 1901 when Edna was 16), in a baby carriage . He enquired after the baby's health, not knowing she wasn't the mother. And then. . .

Memorial Day in the South: Beaufort

It began as a memorial to the Union dead called Decoration Day, so those from outside the South should not be surprised that only in recent years has Memorial Day been celebrated in South Carolina with any enthusiasm. After all, there still exists Confederate Memorial Day, which in South Carolina comes about 10 days earlier (May 10) and commemorates the death of Stonewall Jackson.

We can point to World War I as the war that brought North and South together on this point. According to one source, "By 1890 [Memorial Day] was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war)."

With some irony I note that my parents are buried in Beaufort National Cemetery, one of the most beautiful of these honored spots. Irony because my mother's ancestors fought for the South, and the cemetery boasts large memorials to the Union fighters. Appropriate because my father fought with the Marines at Iwo Jima and in other Pacific battles, and their grave is located at the edge of rows of Ohio troops from the Civil War.

Not long before the first celebration of Union dead in the North, Henry Timrod of Charleston wrote an "Ode on the Confederate Dead" for a day of decorating the graves of the Confederate soldiers buried in Magnolia Cemetery on the Charleston Neck. One line sticks in my mind: "Sleep sweetly in your humble graves."

Shoot Down a Satellite? Reagan Would Smile

It was the craziest idea proposed by that crazy, right-wing president, Ronald Reagan. Star Wars--its very name suggesting a pie-in-the-sky attitude towards its effectiveness. Surely I'm not the only person who remembers the barrage of mocking, negative comments about this proposal?

Yet here we are in 2008, somehow grateful that we may be able to shoot down a satellite that could cause problems--with just that technology, or I should say, an advanced version of that idea!

Have you heard the mass media mention (or, heaven forbid, thank) Reagan for pushing his vision? Down the memory hole. The fact remains that the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)--whose initials have changed several times in the last 20 years--was proposed by Reagan in March 1983.

You Don't Have to Be a Tree Hugger

What makes Charleston and its environs more beautiful than practically anywhere else on earth? [Hint: it's not its lovely, painstakingly-restored 19th-century houses, found only in relatively small areas.]

On either side of the entrance to my home just outside of Corpus Christi, Texas, stood two small but healthy trees. There among the mesquite and palms the species looked vaguely familiar, so I had to ask.

Well, yes, they were stunted versions of the gloriously full-size and moss-draped live oaks I knew from the Lowcountry. Corpus reminded me of Charleston in many ways--a Naval Base, beautiful beaches--but it lacked large trees, thanks to its semi-arid climate.

What a difference those trees can make!

So when I hear about hundreds of trees being cut down in "buffer zones," even if it's in Berkeley County, I fear for Charleston's future. As reported Saturday in the Post and Courier [see Felled trees net man 110 tickets] , so do others: "[Berkeley] County officials say clear-cutting has become a widespread problem; developers can cut down 100-year-old live oaks on their property without penalty. The article suggests that "Charleston County, which has a tree removal ordinance, also is grappling with the problem."

Some of us are old enough to remember when the "Savannah Highway" near its intersection with Wappoo Road was lined on both sides with those grand oaks. We can remember the heavy equipment moving in to remove them and the locals who said nothing could be done to stop their removal. We can remember the appalling raw look when they were gone. Many of us have never gotten over it.

Yes, old houses can be beautiful, but even a run-down shack surrounded by gorgeous live oaks partakes a little of heaven. I learned that in Corpus Christi, where a run-down shack was just, well, a run-down shack.

Prell Shampoo and the $19 Conditioner

If you admit to remembering Prell as the leading shampoo along with Breck, you date yourself. You even understand references to John Edwards as the "Breck girl."

Last week I was reminded of Prell for the first time in years as I watched one of those morning talk shows that purported to show how to save money in the New Year. I don't remember how much Prell cost, except that it cost more than the other brands my mother wanted me to use. It did produce better results. Whether they were better than results from today's heavily researched and promoted products, I have no idea.

What stuck in my mind about the program, however, was not the cost of Prell. The two women advised buying a cheaper shampoo and a more expensive conditioner. Needless to say, what they considered cheap was what I considered expensive. Their advice was to purchase shampoo that cost only about $4 per bottle and conditioner that cost only about $19 per bottle (as opposed to those expensive ones!).

I had already discovered the advantage of purchasing the cheaper shampoo and more expensive conditioner, just in a different price range. Yes, my advice, for what it's worth, is to go with the $1 or less bottle of shampoo and the $4 bottle of conditioner. That's $5 as compared to $23 per supply. Of course, with BOGO and coupons, I never pay as much as $5.

Those women need to get out more. Come to think of it, on their salaries it doesn't matter!

Well, Golly! Everything Old Is New Again

Flash!! Stop the presses--or is that computers? We have incoming news of startling import. . . [drum roll, please]:

Professional educators have discovered single-sex education!

What, you say. How can that be?

Apparently, when they have tried everything else that doesn't work, they occasionally go back into the dim, dark recesses of the past and discover something that did! Amazing.

So we are treated to headlines such as "Federal Rules Back Single-Sex Public Education" in the New York Times and to an editorial on "Single-Sex Education" in the Washington Times, and, to top it all off, a survey reported by the SC Department of Education "Students say single-gender classrooms boost self-confidence, ability to succeed"

Well, duh.

The Twelve Days of Christmas? Over

Christmas ends with Epiphany, January 6th. Those of us who decline to put up our Christmas trees at the beginning of Advent and choose to leave them up until after New Year's to celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas have become the minority in a commercial and secular holiday season.

How many trees are out on the curb on December 26th? Count them next year. They're a measure of what's gone wrong with the celebration of Christ's birth.