Reflections of a Country Doctor

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!