Oldest shop in Leyland?

[Dave H]

Family doctors are a thing of the past, our family doctor was Dr Fothertingham who knew my grandfather my mother me and my children then it all finished with group practices, the point I wish to make is that what was inherent in family health and was past on generation to generation, so diagnosis was known by the doctor from past history, that now is lost.

[anacortesdamp]

That's a major loss, Dave. In the US, we still have what are known as Primary Care Physicians. They are essentially the old-style family doctor that you got to first when you have a problem. Unfortunately the one we've had for the 15+ years we've lived in Anacortes got so fed up of the amount of time she had to spend fighting the health insurance companies and Medicare, she closed down her practice.

She saved my life when I had the cardiac problem. I had chest pains Monday afternoon, saw her first thing Tuesday morning and was on the operating table at a hospital 60 miles away by 3 p.m. that day. Four stents, and I've not had a single cardiac problem since.

We've had to enroll with a different doctor (another woman) , and will have our first "get to know each other" appointments next week. We've been lucky not to have had any health problems between Dr. Bolton shutting up shop in mind December and getting to see our new doc next week. It would have been walk-in clinics or the ER.

We're now into a system where all your records are on line, and accessible to any doctor you go to see anywhere in the world, provided you give permission. Since we rarely travel any more, it doesn't bother us much, but friends who are older than us travel frequently and have had problems on trips to India, Turkey and several places in the US where their adult children live. They're off to Puerto Rico next week for a couple of weeks and from there to Japan for 10 days. I don't know how they manage it - the wife is 83. They were in Russia a couple of years back, then India.

I'm content to stay in Anacortes - I got a belly-full of overseas travel when i worked for Boeing. We're having spectacular spring weather at present, even though the start of spring is officially another 2 weeks away. Clear blue skies, with a bit of wispy, high altitude cirrus, highs pushing 60 F (maybe a bit higher next week) and overnights just around freezing. Absolutely gorgeous! Snag is, the snow pack is so poor, many of the ski areas have closed (in two lower altitude cases, never opened) and a water shortage is a distinct possibility later in the summer.

Still, there's nowt you can do about it except enjoy it while you can.


Frank

[noel]

Are you covered in the UK by our NHS Frank? Curious.

[anacortesdamp]

No - NHS doesn't cover the US. Even when you're just here on holiday, you need traveller health insurance. There was a young couple from the UK visiting New York last year. She was late-term pregnant and went into labour. By the time she and the baby left hospital, the bill was over £ 100,000. Eventually, the hospital waived the charges, but freebies like that are very unusual. If anyone is coming to the US on vacation, you MUST get your own insurance overage.

When I was with Boeing, I was covered by the corporate insurance. Between retirement at 58 and getting Medicare at 65, we had to buy our own. Now on Medicare (both of us), we buy supplemental coverage for the things not covered.The premium is a little under $400 a month. We pay our dentist and optometrist directly (no insurance for those).

The medical services are very good. When I had chest pains on my "walk the dogs" exercise one Monday morning, I made an appointment with our GP for first thing Tuesday and by 3 pm that afternoon, I was on the operating table at a hospital in Bellingham, about 65 miles away. An angioplasty with four stents installed and I was home on the Thursday by lunchtime. Eilleen had similar quick turn-around on her surgeries for rotator cuff damage.


Frank

[noel]

It seems very expensive Frank, $400 a month? In the UK over 65s pay no National Insurance. If we travel to parts of Europe that are in the EU, likewise as long as you have the correct up to date forms. Dental plans cost around £12 a month then any extra work on top. Hygienist for example £20 .

[rocketmanjohn]

Frank,
Supplemental insurance on Medicare covers you for emergencies anywhere in the world. It costs us an extra $17 a month. However Medicare isn't free, even for over 65's, neither are prescriptions. But pensions are way much more than in the UK. Swings and roundabouts I guess.
John

[rocketmanjohn]

Off topic, but thanks Audrey. Our town [Slidell] is virtually back to pre Katrina levels. New Orleans not so, there are still huge areas still wrecked. It seems many landlords of apartment complexes took the insurance and grants and just abandoned the wreckage, never to be seen again. It's the American way, own a business in a fictitious name and run when the going gets tough.
Slidell is considered old when in fact it's only about 140 years old.
You may be interested in these.
http://oldetowneslidellmainstreet.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slidell,_Louisiana

10 years since Katrina, tempus fugit.
John

[devonman]

Just been browsing through this lot (after a very long absence!). A few things…

Clarkson’s butchers were certainly there in the early 1950s when we lived at No 7 Church Road. Incredible though it may seem now, there were four butchers’ shops near the Cross then – Jimmy Lord’s at the top of Fox Lane, Clarkson’s, Shorrocks and the Co-op. And they were joined later by fifth. Jimmy (something) who opened up next door (but one?) to Bolan’s paint shop and lived with his Mrs in one of the cottages between there and Arthur Woods cobblers.

Back then, the shop on “our” side of the archway next to what was the Roebuck sold crockery and belonged to the Pincock family (Derek Pincock became one of the bosses at Tomlinson’s). It was Pamela Coulton’s hairdressers for a good many years after that. Meanwhile, the newsagent’s next the pub opposite passed from the Dobsons to some people called Penswick. When I was in Leyland last summer, it was a take-away.

Bro (Anacortesdamp) talks about Jimmy “Hoddie”. He was foreman at Tomlinson’s yard in the 1950s and I think his surname was actually Hodgson or Hodkinson; also I am sure our family moved into No 7 later than 1949 – since I remember it and wasn’t born till 14 December that year! More like 1951-2 I reckon. We moved to Hargreaves Avenue in 1961 – the year I left Fox Lane school and went to Balshaw’s – but I don’t think 7 Church Rd was demolished in the first phase of the Towngate redevelopment but later, to make way for a car park for market traders.

Since Tesco was built traffic, of course, goes via William Street and then Eden Street to Church Road.

Bro also talks about Dr Cank. I am under the impression that he had his practice in No 7 even before we bought it. He was something of a character, and I believe his morning greeting to patients in his waiting room was “Right! Which of you lazy bug…rs just wants a sick note, then?”

There was mention of old Andrew Tomlinson, who I remember from my childhood coming down from his home in Sandy Lane to the builder’s yard every afternoon (a bit like “Young Mr Grace” in “Are You Being Served”) with his Corgi dog. I have a couple of stories about Andrew, but another time, I think.

We were distantly related through my maternal grandmother to the Tomlinsons and grew up calling Andrew’s sons “Uncle Jimmy” and “Uncle Alf”. As a reporter on the “Evening Post” in the 1970s, I wrote about Jimmy’s death – and also about the murder in Hough Lane, though I can’t remember the woman’s name. I attended the trial at Lancaster which, since her husband pleaded guilty, lasted all of 15 minutes.

Lastly, one for Noel. That photo you mention of the smithy in Towngate can be found on Page 4 of a brochure called “Leyland – Seventy Years of Progress” produced to mark the anniversary of Leyland Motors. The sign over the building says “George Damp & Sons”, so older man in the group on the doorstep is probably my Great Grandfather and the little boy one of his four sons.

Colin Damp
Plymouth