MEMORIES

Certainly there is a story behind this pleasant tranquil scene.

In the fall of 1945 while in Berlin, I had the good fortune of being sent for 6 weeks temporary duty in Paris. I was assigned to the only US Army Hospital, a University of Buffalo unit, that was based inside the city. It was locate in a famous French Hospital on the Blvd St. Michele. Just outside the hospital main gate was a "subway" station.

I inherited a great job for those weeks.The chief of the venereal disease service had just been returned to the States, so I was select ed to fill his shoes! My patients all had third stage syphilis. Five mornings a week I performed lumbar punctures to obtain spinal fluid. The medics and nurses administered their intravenous doses of penicillin. We were still treating with intragluteal injections of Bismuth. This medication was never completely absorbed and throughout the rest of the patient's life ,on pelvic area xrays, was a diagnostic marker for the disease.

By noon I was free to leave the hospital and tour Paris. The photo taken along the Seine River, I not sure which bank, shows that the artists were back at work.

I had never been to an opera so one day two of us decided to take advantage of one of Paris's cultural highlights. Unfortunately the Paris Opera was in hiatus, but the less famous, but not second rate, Opera Comique was in season. Today, in New York City the Metropolitan Opera and The New York State Opera have similar seasons at Lincoln Center in different buildings.Tickets for Lakme were easily obtained and we went.

The tenor was more than slightly overweight and Lakme was equal in size. During the entire performance, a Frenchman behind me kept tapping me on the shoulder, and saying " You should see Lilly Pons in that role". Even I knew that Lakme was the sylph like Pon's signature role.