Coping Successfully with Changing Tides and Winds
A Neurosurgeon's CompassBy Jack KushneriUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2009 Dr. Jack Kushner
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4401-6110-0Contents
Introduction...................................................................................viiChapter One: Lingerie on the Fountain..........................................................1Chapter Two: Two Worlds, Separate and Unequal..................................................7Chapter Three: Not as a Stranger...............................................................10Chapter Four: Years of Wonder..................................................................14Chapter Five: Letters from Annetta.............................................................20Chapter Six: Street Without Joy................................................................24Chapter Seven: Only Surgeons Win in War........................................................31Chapter Eight: Neurosurgical Giants............................................................38Chapter Nine: Neurosurgery Where George Washington Resigned His Commission.....................42Chapter Ten: Tacking: Changing Careers.........................................................55Chapter Eleven: Leading Up to Hall of Fame.....................................................63Chapter Twelve: Green Wave and Midshipmen......................................................65Chapter Thirteen: Solomonically Wise Decisions.................................................69Chapter Fourteen: International Medicine.......................................................74Chapter Fifteen: Life Worthwhile...............................................................80Chapter Sixteen: Surviving the Economic Downturn...............................................83Chapter Seventeen: Reunion.....................................................................87Bibliography...................................................................................91Web Sites......................................................................................94Notes..........................................................................................95
Chapter One
Lingerie on the Fountain
When I was born in 1939, the world was an inimical place into which to bring a child. The fingers of war were reaching across the world. The Holocaust was getting into high gear, and anti-Semitism was prevalent everywhere. Almost everyone was concerned about what was happening in Europe. Japan was becoming more aggressive. It was difficult for anyone to make plans.
My mom, Rose Kushner, was born in 1914 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Her mother, Golda Feldman, immigrated to the USA around 1890 from Latvia. Her father, Sam Feldman, immigrated to the USA from Lithuania in 1885, ostensibly to avoid being drafted into the tsar's army for twenty-five years.
My father, Louis Kushner, was born in 1908 in Washington DC. His mother was Sarah Kushner, who immigrated to the USA in 1885 from Minsk. His father, Jacob Kushner, immigrated to the USA in 1882 from Kiev. After Sarah and Jacob married, they lived in Washington DC, where my father was born. They lived and worked there until the influenza epidemic in 1918 took its toll with the demise of several of my father's siblings and Jacob, his father. Afterward my father lived with various relatives, worked in a grocery store, and finally moved to Jacksonville, Florida, to be with other relatives. While in Jacksonville, my father worked during the Great Depression delivering bread to grocery stores.
Sam Feldman, my mother's father, was a diminutive man with a harsh, rough voice who worked as a peddler in Wisconsin. He went from village to village with a horse and cart selling dry goods, utensils, some food items, and clothes. This occupation was profitable and served all the rural people well until Sears Roebuck started publishing a catalogue. Sam also served as the town crier and brought news to the people in these small towns. My mom says that their large family (five children) never lacked for anything. She used to say that she never knew anything about the Great Depression until she met my father.
My mother graduated from high school in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and wanted to attend the University of Wisconsin, but her father, Sam Feldman, did not approve of girls going off to school by themselves. He insisted that she attend college in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where she could live with relatives. Mom was rebellious, resisted, and went off to Jacksonville, Florida to work at Setzer's grocery store, which was owned by relatives, and she lived with relatives.
So it was at the grocery store in Jacksonville that my parents met. Soon thereafter they were married and moved to Montgomery, Alabama, as other relatives on my father's side were in Montgomery already. And thus I was born in Montgomery, where we lived on Felder Avenue, next door to Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. My mom would see Zelda at the bank scribbling gibberish on notes while in line. In 1940 Montgomery was still talking about a party the Fitzgeralds gave years earlier, during which most of the invitees threw their lingerie on the fountain on Court Square in downtown Montgomery. The fountain was similar to the one on Piccadilly Circus in London. Montgomery had never seen anything like the Fitzgeralds and their wild lifestyle.
Because of the war and the uncertainty created by the military draft, Dad started a small grocery store on Grove Street. My parents initially rented a house on Felder Avenue but later bought a house at 914 National Street in Ridgecrest. Since my dad was not drafted until the end of the war, in 1945, he started a larger grocery store at the corner of Oak and Mill Streets, where he worked for the remainder of his working life. In the meantime, my brother Sheldon was born in 1942, and Harold was born in 1947. Every Friday my parents put ten dollars in a drawer to save for college. With that money they were able to educate two doctors and one lawyer.
I started kindergarten on Fairview Avenue across from Huntingdon College. Mrs. Ingalls, a parent of another child, took me to school every day. She had three children standing up in the backseat, three sitting down in the backseat, and three more standing up on the floor of the backseat. All nine of us were students at the same kindergarten. I also started kindergarten at Temple Beth Or on Sundays. That was when I had the first indication that I was color-blind to red and green, as are one out of twelve men. A girl in my class seemed to be upset that I colored a horse purple and called me an idiot.
After World War II, many parents felt the best education for their children was in a military school. In Montgomery there were two such schools, Starke University School and Hurt School. Because there was a large military population in Montgomery at Maxwell Air Force Base and Gunter Air Force Base, plenty of students were attending these schools. And so it was that I left the kindergarten years and enrolled in Starke School at the age of five.
Mrs. Fant was my teacher and would be my teacher in the second and fifth grades as well. There were only five of us in the first grade. Although some students boarded at the school, I continued to live at home with my family. This was truly an example of Necessary Losses as described in the book by Judith Viorst, as that separation from my parents was necessary but painful.
Our first grade class was in the same room as the second grade class, which enabled us to pick up pearls from their instructions as well as our own. One day I asked Mrs. Fant the identity of the person in the picture on the wall. She looked at me and said that she was flabbergasted that I did not know who it was. I thought perhaps it was George Washington, but then she humiliated me by asking others in both classes if they knew. Someone in the second grade blurted out that the picture was of President Roosevelt. I was so embarrassed that I started crying, and Mrs. Fant sat me on her lap to calm me down.
Even at this young age we marched and marched. We even marched in the parade down Montgomery Street to celebrate Armistice Day on November eleventh. Spectators pointed to our class, stating that we made cute soldiers.
Toward the end of the first year at Starke, plans were made for the commencement exercises. One of the events was a mandatory school dance, which every cadet was required to attend with a date. I had noticed Rose Mohr at Sunday school and thought she would be the right date. The only problem was that I did not have the nerve to ask her, so Mom rehearsed with me just what I should say. One day I called her and asked her to go to the dance with me, at which time she started crying and gave the phone to her mother. Then I started crying and gave the phone to my mother. The mothers decided that at age six I did not need a date. So I attended the dance with Mom. I didn't speak to Rose for ten years, as I was so humiliated and embarrassed because she told other members in the class that I had asked her to the dance.
Two years later, when I was in the third grade, my brother Sheldon (age five) was in the first grade. The Civil War was still in the memory of those who were grandparents, and people still spoke about it as if it were yesterday. The first grade teacher asked my brother, "Sheldon, aren't both of your parents Yankees?"
Sheldon was so embarrassed that he responded, "Yes, they are, but they have lived so long with us that they act like the rest of us."
Sundays were the loneliest days, as all of our Christian friends went to different places of worship. Because I attended a military school and a Jewish temple, I was getting the feeling that I was different from the other kids. This was especially so on Jewish holidays and Christian holidays, as there were not many Jewish families in Montgomery. I did not experience any anti-Semitism at this age, but peer acceptance was important.
Our neighborhood was an exceptional one in that we had so many playmates. There were at least fifteen boys and four girls in the neighborhood, which enabled us to play all sorts of games and sports. All of the parents raised all of the kids, as we went to the various houses from time to time. This was such an innocent time-we were safe from fears such as kidnapping or other criminal activity.
Unfortunately, we all went barefoot and did not have any immunizations. One day while we were playing hide-and-seek, Hilton Starr stepped on a dog bone. I can still see the image of his father, Sergeant B. Starr, who had just returned from the war in the Pacific, holding Hilton's foot in a bucket of water under the weeping willow tree. Hilton was taken to the hospital at Maxwell Air Force Base, where he died ten days later from lockjaw or tetanus.
About two weeks later Joe Van Wezel brought Bart Starr in his arms back to his house. Bart had been standing on the seat of his bicycle, fell, and hit his head on the pavement. Bart had a concussion and recovered. These two episodes piqued my interest in the mysteries of medicine, and I never forgot them. I personally witnessed these two events and was intrigued by the treatment of injury and disease.
Our neighborhood was a mini training camp for football. In the evenings Bart Starr had several of us running along the shadow of a telephone pole, while someone else would tackle him. This served as a boundary for our tackling practice. We never did any particular exercises to develop our muscles, but we practiced passing the ball, tackling, blocking, and pass defense with Bart as our mentor. Bart stressed that we should place our head in the opponent's soft abdomen so as to not take any of the punishment. He also scheduled National Street to play football against Ridgecrest Street. From that competition, many went on to play Little League football. I played for Capital Chevrolet but was never as good an athlete as Sheldon, who went on to play for Sidney Lanier High School and was selected as an all-city player.
Because we all played together and because our parents looked after all of the kids as if they were their own, we really had a marvelous neighborhood. Sergeant B. Starr always told me that our neighborhood was exceptional. Not only did we live in a wonderful neighborhood, but my parents sent my brother and me to various camps during the summer. Initially we went to Camp Grist in Selma, Alabama, for ten days for swimming, archery, crafts, and various sports. Later we also went to Camp Rotary outside of Wetumpka, where I eventually became a counselor. The most demanding camp was Camp Tukabatchee, a Boy Scout camp, outside of Pratville, Alabama, where we worked on our various merit badges. We had rigorous training in swimming, lifesaving, and other aquatic activities. That is where I made the most progress toward obtaining the Eagle Scout award and was inducted into the Order of the Arrow, an honor camper organization.
All of us felt very secure growing up in this protected environment and neighborhood. This experience always served as wonderful reference point as we grew up and realized the insecurity and uncertainty of the world around us.
Chapter Two
Two Worlds, Separate and Unequal
The Korean War continued and Eisenhower ran for the presidency on the pledge that he would end the war, which he did. The number of parents who wanted to send their kids to a military school diminished, so Starke University School ceased to exist, and I transferred to Baldwin Junior High School. Mr. Watts, the principal, told my mom that my outstanding grades would drop a little since the school could not give me the personal attention that the private military school did. But my grades were still high despite what he said. I loved school and was challenged to continue learning and obtaining an education.
In addition to the schoolwork, I was active in the Boy Scouts. Troop 101 met every Monday evening at St. James Methodist Church, which my mom-even though she was Jewish and brought her sons up Jewish-helped found with Mrs. F. Ingram, Mrs. B. Starr, and Mrs. W. Thomas. While in the Boy Scouts I earned the Eagle rank when I was thirteen and was the first Boy Scout in Alabama to earn the Ner Talmud Award for demonstrating significant knowledge of the Jewish religion. In addition, I won the Good Citizenship Award given by the Daughters of the American Revolution. This award was for participating in community activities such as decorating the military cemetery on Memorial Day, planting trees, cleaning up the city, and helping to build small bridges in the city park.
In the afternoons and on the weekends, I worked with Rabbi Atlas on my Bar Mitzvah. A few years ago I felt fortunate to call Rabbi Atlas, who was in his nineties and living in Miami, to tell him that I have been to many Bar Mitzvahs since mine, but I have never seen such a beautiful Bar Mitzvah as the one he put on for me. He worked with me so that I could conduct the entire Friday night and Saturday morning service in Hebrew, read from the Torah, and deliver a speech that my dad helped me write. I was extremely proud to have a Bar Mitzvah and was proactive in seeking out this education.
During those years I became much more aware of racial discrimination in Alabama. I saw that the black kids went to dilapidated schools and had an inferior education. The black adults did only menial tasks, such as yard work, or they worked for the Caucasians as domestic helpers. Only black men collected the trash. The black population was completely separated and segregated and could not eat in white restaurants, drink from white water fountains, use white bathrooms, swim in white pools, or visit white parks and libraries.
In history class, the idea hit me that just a few more years would mark the hundredth anniversary of the Civil War and still the blacks were treated as second-class citizens. The blacks were considered by definition not creditworthy, and hence they could not obtain credit for a mortgage to buy a house. Jim Crow laws were in effect, so the black students attended inferior schools, sat in the back of the bus, attended separate churches, and had separate sports. Their lives were completely separate from the lives of the white people, and socially there was no contact.
For that matter, no Jews were allowed at the Montgomery Country Club, and the social lives of Christians and Jews were separate for the most part, except in our neighborhood. As a Jewish family, we could not belong to the Montgomery Country Club and hence could not learn how to play tennis and golf. These activities were only available in private clubs at that time.
Chapter Three
Not as a Stranger
In 1954 I enrolled at Sidney Lanier High School, which had about 1,300 students. This was the only white high school in Montgomery, although they were building Lee High School, another school for white students on the other side of the city. Sidney Lanier High School had a strong academic program, and I had excellent teachers.
Ms. Kate Clarke taught all of us Latin, and many stayed with her for five years including the Latin taught in junior high school. She got so passionate and theatrical teaching us that one day she looked out the window and saw Caesar's troops coming across the parking lot. She ran to the other side to see Vercingetorix coming to attack, and while she was strutting across the room, the elastic in her underpants snapped and slid to her ankles. There was total silence in the room as she slowly stepped out of her underpants, put them in a drawer and continued teaching. After class ended, word about the event spread all over the school.
We also had excellent teachers in French, History, Algebra, Geometry, and English, and our students won a large number of scholarships to prestigious colleges and universities. Two boys went on to West Point, one to the Air Force Academy, and one to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
(Continues...)
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