Which Florence?

Chapter 11

Crisp fall Saturdays heightened national awareness of stadiumequipped towns like Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Knoxville, Tennessee and Blacksburg, Virginia, radio broadcasters frequently settled for one-word references to ‘state, tech or A&M.’

Fueled by game day enthusiasm, hiring managers favored similar ‘state, tech or A&M’ descriptors of applicants, describing someone from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University as a ‘Hokie’ or another from Auburn University as a War Eagle.

News of TVA job listings spread rapidly, particularly those involving agricultural research. Agricultural research openings typically originated with TVA’s fertilizer arm, the NFDC, whose agricultural function was not shared with similar regional utility companies.

TVA’s Office of Power had never previously employed an agricultural specialist, generally relying upon NFDC for expertise in that direction. Hence, a TVA Office of Power job listing came as a surprise.

Herbicide Specialist

TVA Office of Power

W. Summit Hill Drive

Knoxville, Tennessee

Alumni loyalties might explain why a Summit street H-R person leaked a draft copy of the announcement to Virginia Tech’s Crop,

Soil and Environmental Sciences office. Internal distribution within the agency yielded little more than hand-lettered transfer applications originating with two disgruntled employees facing disciplinary action for falling asleep at work.

Improved NFDC fertilizers benefitted not only US-based farmers but others worldwide, leading to the creation of the International Fertilizer Development Center in 1974.

Why would the Office of Power be interested in employing an herbicide specialist when those kinds of intellectual resources already existed within the NFDC. Most Office of Power applicant searches targeted a single pool of qualified applicants, individuals currently serving the United States Navy. Why not, its Office of Nuclear Reactors hosted the world’s best applied nuclear engineering training program.

While universities operated small nuclear reactors, useful in smallscale production of medical isotopes, Navy’s reactors powered nuclear submarines or even aircraft carriers TVA’s reach-out to the Navy wasn’t restricted to nuclear-qualified operators, Navy-trained twelve-hundred-pound steam plant operators shared many qualifications with their civilian counterparts.

TVA H-R offices served mainly a ‘Welcome Wagon’ function for recently separated or retired naval personnel seeking new horizons. Another benefit attending hiring Navy retirees were straightforward steps surrounding adding those who already possessed advanced security clearances, eliminating screeners visiting applicants’ former neighborhoods asking. ‘Does applicantX host or attend wild parties? Could applicant-X possibly be a threat to the government of the United States?’

The major H-R hurdle was one of convincing Navy applicants residing in Alameda, California or Chesapeake, Virginia to trade those places for new homes in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee or Town Creek, Alabama.

TVA application forms included sections devoted to hobbies, informing TVA hirers of applicants who enjoyed duck hunting, tournament bass fishing or even hiking; nobody operated better lakes or game preserves than TVA.

Candidates were offered no-obligation tours, complete with slowdowns allowing them to copy real estate agent phone numbers, highlighting communities such as Ducktown or even Tennessee’s Cleveland. H-R types confirmed that monthly mortgage payments for horse farm estates in those places compared well with comparable payments supporting narrow townhouses or duplexes in Norfolk or Virginia Beach.

Rather surprisingly, Peg’s terminal illness didn’t seem to thwart Trace’s academic progress. He effectively coordinate early morning chores at the Inn with class and laboratory obligations. Across the breadth of general education requirements, plus double major requirements in agronomy and chemistry, Trace excelled. His instructors echoed similar comments. ‘You should remain here long enough to complete your master’s work, too. ’ Trace’s subsequent master’s training and thesis addressed herbicide and soil sterilant strategies applicable to east coast railroads, financial support for the project supported by the Seaboard Coast Line and its successor, CSX.

Ahead of master’s graduation day Trace found a note from his advisor pinned to his laboratory chair. ‘See me.’ Recognizing language attributable to a busy professor with better intentions than time, Trace dropped by his advisor’s office where the professor provided a copy of a TVA job posting.

Herbicide Specialist

TVA Office of Power

W. Summit Hill Drive

Knoxville, Tennessee

(incumbent) Furnishes personal transportation and is familiar with ordering, application and evaluation of weed-retardant chemicals; Capable of negotiating (contract) chemical purchases; Organizes and contracts for mist blower and aircraft herbicide applications; Knowledgeable regarding plant growth retardancy and human health and livestock risks posed by agricultural chemicals; Comfortable with negotiating inter-agency agreements; This position requires 80% overnight travel. P-O-C - RG ‘Bob’ Eagerly, Vince Clearnet, Office of Power.

His professor suggested Trace stood a good chance of being hired, asserting that his thesis topic aligned well, further noting their department had previously already post graduates to TVA, although to its NFDC entity. His advisor generously assisted Trace across that afternoon, by assembling and posting his resume accompanied by three highly-positive recommendations and a hard-to-read transcript photocopy.

When his advisor swung the Inn’s glass door open ten days later, Trace anticipated he was for Wednesday’s meat loaf special, but was there instead to relay a TVA-initiated H-R message. ‘Here’s the phone number you call to arrange your interview; it looks like you are going to Muscle Shoals.’

Past restaurant close that afternoon Trace used a wall-mounted pay phone to call Knoxville, shortly speaking to RG ‘Bob’ Eagerly who informed him that TVA had authorized Trace to work with a Blacksburg-local Progress street travel agent to finalize his interview trip plans. Claiming he was needed elsewhere Eagerly closed the call by suggesting he would pick him up at the FlorenceMuscle Shoals airport.

The next day Trace visited the travel office, its interior walls decorated with sun-faded ‘Ski Vail and ‘Snorkel Sanibel Island’ posters. After congratulating his newest customer on meriting the TVA interview, the travel agent consulted a thumb-worn copy of the Official Airlines Guide, the O-A-G, using tiny printed entries it contained as a guide to travel plans. The agent shortly produced a paper ticket that he claimed would ‘fly’ Trace from Roanoke’s Woodrum field to the Florence – Muscle Shoals airport. Trace asked what the air travel cost but the agent confirmed that TVA had pre-authorized payment.

Possessing no previous air travel experience, Trace parked the Lark in an unpaved, although free airport parking area before proceeding to the Roanoke airport’s gate 16, preparing to board a flight to Florence, South Carolina. His ‘wrong’ Florence choice was quickly corrected by a gate agent who sent him two gates down to one supporting a flight to the Muscle Shoals Regional Airport.

Trace boarded a noisy De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter that shortly passed over Ashville ahead of Tennessee’s capitol city, Knoxville where the pilot chose a new westward vector, flying high above Chattanooga and Huntsville before beginning its descent near the Courtland airfield ahead of Muscle Shoals. The Twin Otter eight passengers were shortly instructed by a flight attendant to secure their seat belts ahead of a Muscle Shoals landing.

If Trace had pursued a history major rather than an agronomy path, he might have recognized the De Haviland’s flight path replicated one forged by Donelson’s Tennessee Valley explorations, occasionally listed as the ‘Donelson Adventure.’

Donelson pioneers, anticipating perilous river conditions accompanying spring rains, departed the Holsten mountain region of Virginia and Tennessee two hundred years previously, perhaps on December 22 1779. Despite risks imposed by their overladen barges, other canoe and flatboat homesteader wannabes joined the Donnelson’s.

But by the time they Donelson’s reached the Muscle Shoals region of the Tennessee, a perilous navigation challenge, almost forty of the original party had perished, victims of drownings, disease or even wilderness attacks. The remaining Donelson’s were happy to remain there given perilous travel across river mileposts 247-53 was known to locals as the ‘One-hundred-foot Drop,’

Trace surrendered a spent peanuts wrapper to a smiling female flight attendant ahead of grabbing an aluminum rail and descending eight hollow-sounding portable stairs. Shaken by the Roanoke mix-up, he breathed relief at signage announcing ‘Muscle Shoals Regional Airport.’ He was shortly met by two corporateappearing individuals, one of whom held a sign welcoming ‘Ted Ballew.’

Trace quickly appreciated that his TVA hosts, Eagerly and Clearnet had a full agenda in mind. While Clearnet drove, Eagerly took the lead, explaining the interview would take place in a rented conference room at the Turtle Point golf club, a Robert Trent Jones golf club on the Tennessee’s north shore near Killen, Alabama.

Once they were seated in Turtle Point’s opulent conference room Eagerly conversationally teed off. ‘Here’s the thing, right now brush and weed removal in the Division of Power is 90% mechanical and only 10% chemical.’

‘In TVA language this means more muscle, less mental. What we want you to do, under our supervision of course, is move the mix toward 90% chemical removal using herbicides complemented by perhaps 10% mechanical removal, mostly rough-cut brush hogging and chain sawing.

Ignoring the fact Trace had already worked with major east coast railroads to accomplish similar goals, Clearnet overstated the obvious. ‘Floor work means previously cleared areas, as opposed to tree work addressing volunteer trees and brush. We’ve checked with Bonneville out west to conclude that expanded herbicide limits labor-intensive floor work, brush hogging and chain sawing.’

Clearnet had more. ‘But TVA Power isn’t in the scorched earth business, we need some ground cover below high-tension transmission lines, they can weigh tons and require erosion control.’

Good cop – bad cop, here came Eagerly. ‘If you examine our sister utility provider approaches, you’ll conclude TVA is an outlier. Our tower-transmission line landscapes don’t look much like ones Arizona and Nevada owned by Bonneville Power. Farmers, they want to grow crops minus weeds, railroads, they don’t want to grow anything but we are in a mixed position. Clearnet then produced a colorful map designating twelve TVA sectors.

Nearby sector entries included Muscle Shoals, and Madison, Alabama twenty miles east of Turtle Point. The West Point sector stood to their west while the Nashville was obviously to their north. Names such as Oak Ridge were reasonably familiar to him, whereas others such as Morristown, Manchester and Cleveland were less so. The Hopkinsville TVA sector appeared to abut Tennessee’s border with Kentucky while a very non-Italian Milan sector spread nearly to Memphis.

Eagerly pinch hit for Clearnet. ‘TVA staff are wondering why we didn’t just phone NFDC to find some agricultural scientists from there to run the herbicide management piece. But Vince and I would like to keep this project entirely under our control plus we’ve looked into establishing some inter-agency agreements beyond TVA.’

Eagerly took a curious leap. ‘There are other interesting regional resources. The Navy’s SEABEES in Gulfport, Mississippi are sitting on fifteen thousand barrels of expired herbicide, some of which, with the right paper work, becomes useable. Ten years back soldiers from Fts. Richie and Meade sprayed herbicide mixtures along Georgia Power lines, mainly 2,4,5-T, but a DOD herbicide named Picloram, too.’

Eagerly gained steam. ‘Why not support mile-long fairways beneath our power lines, an amplified, electrified golf course of sorts. That’s the reason why we brought you here to the Turtle Point Club, nice surroundings that might encouraged you to become a big-picture guys like Vince here and me. What’ll it be, Ted, you want to join our efforts?’

Eagerly and Clearnet moved toward closure. Again, here came Eagerly. ‘One of our directors flew to Muscle Shoals this morning for a meeting and is not planning on returning tonight although the jet itself has to return to Knoxville. We’ve held it up anticipating you might want a King Air experience all the way back to the Roanoke airport.’

Not impressed his hosts hadn’t gotten his name right and were at best only marginally informed, Trace tested the water, asking a question. ‘How much floor work do you anticipate will be directed at buckbrush or invasive honey suckle?’ Doubling up, Trace probed further. ‘How concerned are you about adjacent crops, say soybeans or corn?’

Eagerly’s response reflected a curious combination of ignorance and arrogance. ‘Ted, we see you’re up-to-date on details. Why don’t you just keep that kind of stuff in mind?’

As if he had accepted, Clearnet advanced. ‘Our only remaining issue is that only TVA employees are allowed on agency aircraft so if you’d like to ride home on the King Air we’d like for you to sign the H-R paperwork, making you the Office of Power’s newest, in fact its only ‘Agronomist – Herbicide Specialist.’

After signing multiple copies of H-R paperwork that evening, Trace boarded a King Air, one making an intermediate stop at Roanoke ahead of ending its day at Knoxville.

Once airborne they vectored east, passing directly overhead the Brown’s Ferry nuclear plant where the pilot sought a new slightly northeast course, allowing Trace to view 500kV transmission lines stretching out below the plane’s course.

Darkness revealed locations of millions of TVA power subscribers, from the flight’s origination in Muscle Shoals until well past Chattanooga. Likely exhausted by a confused airport arrival and a goofy interview, Trace dozed. The King Air exited Tennessee’s air space, entering the Commonwealth of Virginia. Awakening, Trace mulled over the possibility of keeping Peg’s Blacksburg flat while occupying a series of Clearnet-endorsed motel rooms.

Fairways Chapter 12

Various Hyde Park Roosevelt’s dedicated major efforts to other regions. Theodore ‘Colonel’ Roosevelt favored the American west while his niece and her husband, Franklin Delano, likely favored Appalachia. Historians’ likely to claim that Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s train trips to Warm Springs, Georgia-based rehabilitation facilities fostered his interest in mid-south. But that proved difficult to establish given that passed mostly through states such as Virginia, the Carolinas or even Georgia as opposed to TVA lands, mostly in Tennessee and Alabama plus three other states.

Efforts to improve the Tennessee’s navigability preceded TVA by almost one hundred years. Dams, particularly those equipped with locks, levees and controlled outflows favored navigation while hydroelectric power production offered a useful bonus.

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) legitimized the federal government’s role in river navigation. Congress responded, too, deeding four hundred thousand acres bordering the Tennessee river to the state of Alabama. Successive efforts before and following the Civil war there were directed at dams and lock construction, engineering projects requiring engineers, steam shovel operators and stone masons.

Barring further federal support and restrictions the result could have been as minimal as a local Muscle Shoals Power Corporation (1899), but much more than a local power company was required to resolve the ‘One-hundred-foot Drop.’ Even provision of cheap electrical power wasn’t enough to resolve over-planted cotton fields and nutrient-depleted soil. Successfully addressing nutrient depletion would require nitrate-dependent chemical improvements. While Birmingham, Alabama had early established itself as a producer of ferrous metals, plentiful hydroelectric power in northwest Alabama might make that region a key producer of aluminum.

Alabama ‘sword to plowshare’ politicians lobbied for federal support of two Muscle Shoals nitrate plants ahead of world War I’s effective armistice (November 11th 1918). Oddly, neither nitrate plant provided war-useful explosives nor munitions.

The Wilson dam construction project near Muscle Shoals mesmerized American industrial leaders. Thomas A. Edison and Henry Ford both traveled to Muscle Shoals to witness nitrate plant and dam construction progress. While Ford may have generously visited north Alabama his offer to purchase the plants and dam was by any measure stingy, a couple of million dollars for improvements the federal governments had invested tens of millions and decades in producing. Ford’s stingy offer resulted in a Congressional deadlock.

Declining crop yields in the Southeast owed some origins to overplanting that could be partially rectified through crop rotation. Curiously, either application of fertilizers or herbicides improved yields. The Southeast’s crop-growing personnel problem originated with world war II when many of its farming sons, some daughters, too, left for war. World war II labor shortages further argued for ‘one-and-done’ chemically-based use of herbicides.

Regardless, use of herbicides and improved fertilizers spanning TVA’s first fifty years conspired to double crop yields. Corn led the way, 1930-era twenty-bushel yields remarkably quadrupled by 1980 maybe even more While perhaps not as dramatically, cotton and soybean yields tripled, too. Skilled agriculturally adapted statisticians struggled to assign fertilizer-only or herbicide-only credits.

Back in Blacksburg, Trace told the College Inn’s owners what they already knew, that he had accepted a TVA job offer and would be moving. Analogous to Peg’s baby shower and to similar collections taken up during her illness, they presented him with a ‘Good Luck – Graduation’ card bearing greetings from the Inn’s staff and other ‘townies. ’

Trace stuffed four changes of clothing, a clock radio and an outdated but useful copy of the ‘Farm Chemicals Handbook’ into his Val-a-Pak suitcase before leaving the Lark in the same unpaved parking lot where he had parked ahead of the interview. Trace flew to Knoxville for a new hire processing and TVA agency orientation.

Eagerly-initiated orientation tours and meetings occurred in Knoxville and Nashville, places Eagerly said he favored on account of what he termed ‘night life’ possibilities. While perhaps only a formality, the tours afforded him with an opportunity estimate the dimensions of TVA’s vegetation issues. Perhaps tiring of the meetings, Eagerly gave Trace an agency credit card, instructing him to it and use his personal vehicle to meet with herbicide operators and contractors across all twelve of TVA’s sectors encompassing nearly eighty thousand square miles.

Spending time with Eagerly enabled Trace to learn Eagerly had served as a cost estimator for a transformer oil replacement program, one in which toxic PCB-based capacitor-type fluids were replaced by less toxic alternatives. He similarly learned that Clearnet supervised the agency’s fly ash sales program, one in which cement manufacturers were compensated for removing toxic coal-plant byproducts from TVA coal-generating power plants.

Even more interesting, during a water cooler conversation at the Summit street headquarters, an accountant largely explained the rationale for Trace’s hiring. Apparently, the accountant had generated some 1977 TVA-wide estimates of vegetation control expenses, everything from brush-hogging to contracted aerial spraying, sharing how he estimated chemical costs at 75% of the total causing Trace to wonder how that estimate reconciled with Eagerly’s 10% figure. The accountant also shared that agency decision-makers had minimized roles for non-technical, mid-range purchasing staffs in managing the vegetation control program, suggesting instead that the Office of Power should recruit a university-trained agronomist.

Trace shortly undertook an 80% overnight travel agenda that witnessed the Lark traveling in multiple directions. Indeed, over the succeeding three months he spent time in all twelve TVA regions.

Consistent with his railroad experiences, most of TVA’s ground applications worked well while the effectiveness of aerial spraying varied greatly. On two occasions across his first three months Trace phoned his Tech advisor to update him on new job managing TVA power line vegetation control efforts.

Posted to Muscle Shoals the first week in November, Trace was surprised to receive an evening Eagerly-initiated phone call. ‘Hey Trace, I’ve got an idea for next week. Why don’t we visit the SEABEES in Gulfport. They’re sitting on thousands, maybe millions of, gallons of expired herbicides. I’d like to review the Navy’s plans and let them know about some of our initiatives.’

Trace spent his last day in Muscle Shoals touring NFDC warehouses and following a night’s sleep checked out of his motel on Saturday morning . His drive across Mississippi was punctuated by live radio broadcasts of an Alabama – Ole Miss football game, announcers occasionally updating listeners regarding the Virginia Tech - Virginia score. Before he left the northeast Mississippi TVA region Trace stopped twice to harvest some shrub samples taken under power lines, labeling them for further identification and characterization.

Monday morning Trace met Eagerly outside the Navy base’s guard shack. Trace used his TVA badge to gain access while Eagerly insisted on flashing what appeared to be a pink naval reserve ID card, sharing with Trace how he spent most weekends there performing what he described as ‘drilling duty.’ Trace formed a mental image of Eagerly marching back and forth from the guard shack to an extensive area reserved for Agent Orange storage, one known as area-7.

Reaching area-7, Eagerly introduced Trace to a female civilian worker, someone who had reluctantly agreed to be Eagerly’s tour guide that morning. Even though unsolicited, Eagerly reinforced that he and Vince Clearnet would continue to head TVA’s herbicide program, describing Trace as a newly-hired technician. Trace remained silent, sizing up the woman’s reactions to another Eagerly overreach. She appeared to focus most of her attention on a pencil she currently twirled between two fingers, mostly ignoring Eagerly.

The female civilian shoved words Eagerly’s way. ‘Petty Officer, when can we expect to have the pleasure of expecting your company again for one of your drill weekends?’

Straightening at the reference, Eagerly requested an area-7 herbicide tour. Using a walkie-talkie, she radioed an office mate that she would be reachable via radio, that she was showing their guest around using a Cushman-Truckster golf cart.

Trace viewed a vast array of olive drab barrels, most stacked twohigh, spread across five acres. Their guide explained that the barrel matrix required surface and first-level pallet-ing, that they were never stacked than three barrels in, lest what she termed a ‘Leaker’ become inaccessible.

Trace viewed a labyrinth-quality maze, successive stands of barrels and pallets, each interrupted front-to-back and side-to-side by aisles set at the width of two back-to-back forklift trucks. True to her description, no potential ‘Leaker was more than one barrel removed from a forklift-based and hopefully berm-ed transfer.

Trace quickly appreciated that the SEABEE’s chemical storage insights, ones adapted to the world’s largest Agent Orange repository, further noting that barrels there carried an identical inscription.

HERBICIDE – BUTYL ESTER

Below the all-capital stenciled identifier, smaller letters designated Gulfport, MS as a destination, suggesting they had been returned from southeast Asia. Trace puzzled over why there were no hazard warnings, barring bright orange circled bands.

Directing her comments specifically to Trace, the tour guide explained. ‘As Bob has likely told you, we monitor the chemical inventory daily for leaks, frequently replace damaged pallets and, fortunately, less frequently, have to redrum barrel contents.’

While Trace said nothing, he recalled a line he had memorized for a Christiansburg high school play, from Dante’s Inferno, ‘All hope abandon, ye who enter here,’ finding it apropos for a nearly interminable array of Agent-Orange barrels.

Following a series of left-hand turns they neared Area-7’s distant corner where their host piloted the Truckster onto a wide access road before speeding back to the office. Directing her comments toward Eagerly, she outlined a plan. ‘You’ll want to collect all of your personal belongings before you exit our main gate.’

Eagerly shortly proposed a lunch meeting with Trace. ‘Why don’t we sketch out an after-action report at the Hung Foo buffet in downtown Biloxi.’

Voicing no objection to Chinese food, Trace followed an Eagerlydriven sedan, nearly losing him on account of his reluctance to exceed the installation’s fifteen-mile-per-high speed limit. Half an hour later they parked near a downtown restaurant, joining a lunchtime business crowd that could have just as easily originated at Blacksburg’s College Inn.

After fanning through an eleven-page menu, Eagerly announced that he would take the buffet. Armed with warm plates needing side-boys to contain steaming rice and noodle entrees, Eagerly began questions before Trace’s first Hung Foo bite. ‘What are you paying for a 55-gallon drum of herbicide concentrate.’

On the job for only a few months, Trace’s answer was less than definitive. ‘Maybe twelve hundred dollars per barrel, depending upon vendor, herbicide and concentration.’

Mostly ignoring the vendor – composition - concentration variables, Eagerly raced to conclusions. ‘We can do better. I’ve got something in mind that might streamline our operation and save TVA lots of money.’

Speaking in a hushed tone as if a fellow Hung Foo patron might overhear him, Eagerly plotted. ‘Are you aware that Brazilian authorities have proposed that the Navy transfer the entire Gulfport Agent Orange inventory to them so they can convert the Amazon rain forest into a series of farms?’

Having no idea what Eagerly was talking about Trace comically lowered his shoulders and leaned forward as if they were discussing nuclear plant secrets, all the time twirling Hung Foo noodles.

Although rhetorical perhaps, Eagerly posed a second question. ‘Why we let Brazil get there first.’

Twice drunk Chapter 13

His parents conceptualized Louis Gdalman’s pursuit of a pharmacy degree in somewhat the same terms as if Louis were chasing a neighbor kid down Dearborn avenue. While financial arrangements were a bit of a stretch, his parents supported Louis’ desire to become a degreed pharmacist, somewhat of a novelty among 1937-era working-class families. Less than a week following graduation Louis was employed as a hospital pharmacist, primarily serving Cook county, but working other pharmacy shifts at Chicago’s St. Luke’s hospital, too.

While his classmates may have favored retail or drug store-based employment, Louis gravitated toward hospital pharmacy work, fulfilling in-house (also termed hospital) orders but also satisfying out-patient (discharge) prescriptions. Hospital-based pharmacy meant lots of face-to-face contact with providers, house staff physicians. Furthermore, Louis believed his hospital affiliations provided insights into Chicago, and even the region’s social ills, infectious or communicable diseases, workplace-acquired conditions and, yes, intentional and unintentional poisonings.

Louis and Kathryn married less than a year past their respective college graduations, her baccalaureate mostly devoted to music. Settling near the two hospitals and the lakeshore permitted them access to Chicago’s core but perhaps more importantly, for it meant Louis trips back and forth to work were brief.

Thus began a process in which Kathryn aided Louis, accepting hospital switchboard calls during the brief period required for Louis to take the train to their steam-heated flat. Kathryn spoke to some of the most respected clinicians of that era, ones from Chicago and others originating elsewhere in Illinois, if not southern Wisconsin or northwest Indiana, distinguished panels of Ochners, Solomons, Sheinins and, of course, Daniel Hale Williams.

It is uncertain when, or even why, Louis Gdalman originated one of the first systematic approaches to poison management. Furthermore, why him as opposed to experts in Philadelphia or perhaps San Francisco. The fact he compiled copious notes surrounding cases, or used these experiences to generate guidelines is noteworthy but not necessarily unique. Major figures like occupational medicine’s Carey McCord or even Alice Hamilton had favored a similar summative approach.

Fairly put, Gdalman’s unique contribution was a call-back system applicable to clinical management of seriously poisoned patients. Remarkably, for nearly twenty-five years he and Kathryn supported a twenty-four hour a day poison information resource.

Gdalman also approached poisoning management on a wellreasoned pharmacokinetically-driven basis even though the latter sub-discipline had yet to be announced. Nevertheless, Louis’ efforts were not universally accepted. ‘Why is a pharmacist from another hospital calling us about a call someone placed to him yesterday –Who does he think he is?’

Gdalman’s additional contribution was one of training others to appreciate and execute approaches similar to his, an early trainee being a young physician named Robert ‘Bob’ Fink. Young Bob Fink had completed college, and the first two years of medical school, at the nearby University of Illinois Champaign professors there directed their capable African-American medical student to undertake his final medical school years at Atlanta’s Morehouse School of Medicine. Fink remained in Atlanta past graduation, qualifying at Emory’s Grady hospital; his credentials included both internal and pulmonary medicine ahead of a Chicago return. Back in Chicago Fink acquired hospital admitting privileges at its best hospitals.

Fink sought Gdalman, possibly a result of a previous encounter or due his interest in Gdalman’s successive call-back approach. Popping into the Cook county pharmacy, Fink thrust out a hand and introduced himself. Somewhat startled, Louis, someone known to be a bit dry, introduced himself using his last name, Gdalman (‘ Doll-Man’) and function, hospital pharmacy.

From their first days, Fink referred to Louis as ‘Prof,’ Louis never corrected him nor ceased chuckling at the reference. Needing a Gdalman opinion, Fink timed pharmacy trips to coincide with lunch, bringing deli originated corned-beef-on-rye sandwiches and multiple questions. One day as they worked through an algorithmically-based approach, Gdalman suggested a new professional contact, someone operating an environmental laboratory.

‘Have you met Dr. Berman at the Cook County hospital lab, our goto for industrial, or even forensic analyses, lead, toxic metals and whatever else she’s willing to help us with?’ Admitting he had not, Fink affirmed an interest in setting up a time to meet the remarkable clinical toxicologist and to tour her lab, one that had converted hundreds, maybe thousands of lead (Pb) laden blood specimens, into critical readings.

While granted admitting privileges at both St. Luke’s and Cook County , Fink possessed a passion for the mid-South. When a friend at the ‘Grady,’ Emory’s teaching hospital informed him of an impending University of Alabama hospital opening, Fink responded.

Hastily arranged air travel placed Fink in Birmingham where staff recruited him as an attending physician and for the UAB poison center medical directorship. Anxious to attract the well-qualified Chicagoan, UAB staff presented Fink with an embroidered lab coat announcing a new affiliation. Below a green UAB university logo, it announced

Robert ‘Bob’ Fink, MD Internal Medicine & Poison Control University of Alabama Hospitals

Some of his midwestern colleagues likely questioned Fink’s new choice of a medical environments, wondering how welcoming the area might be to a relatively young African-American physician.

Robert ‘Bob’ Fink, however, saw matters differently, wanting to practice in a place where many of his patients would likely share his cultural attitudes, if not appearance. In short, Fink sought to bring the best of medicine to the mid-South.

The hospital, if not the entire Birmingham university was experiencing a renaissance. Originally known as the ‘extension,’ UAB-led advances in medicine and surgery helped to replace an older, negative view of Birmingham. Dr. Fink numbered among a handful of African-American academic physicians at UAB, certainly the only one dedicated to managing toxic injuries.

While Birmingham residents might not make frequent visits to north Alabama, the same wasn’t true for the reverse flow.

Individuals surrounding Muscle Shoals frequently visited Birmingham, sometimes in terms of mall-based shopping opportunities at big retailers such as Parisian or other times on account of UAB medical appointments.

Like Colbert bordering the Tennessee river to its south, Lauderdale county was legislatively dry, both counties prohibited sale of alcoholic beverages. Purchasing legal alcohol meant day trips to Tennessee border towns like Lawrenceburg or Savannah. Otherwise, imbibers relied upon bootleggers and local moon shine whiskey distillers, both in high demand. Desperate for a drink, still others searched tool sheds for a lightly-disguised bottle hidden from a spouse.

Greek social organizations formed a basis for the college experience, whether in Tuscaloosa, Oxford, Mississippi or, more recently, Florence, Alabama. And what better way to begin a college football weekend than with an alcohol-fueled social event. That was exactly what the Tappa Kappa’s or as more commonly known, T-K’s desired.

The T-K’s beverage of choice for parties, an alcoholic ‘purple passion’ mixture was prepared by pouring the contents of Everclear (grain alcohol) into a half-full punch bowl containing two 2Lbottles of Mountain Dew soda, its purple characteristic the consequence of three grape Kool-Aid envelopes sprinkled and stirred. While its non-alcohol ingredients could be purchased at a Kroger’s or even a Piggly-Wiggly grocery, Ever-clear purchases necessitated a trip to the Tennessee line where a fraternity pledge would flash a phony ID and leave with his hastily-organized purchase. To ensure the purchaser reached his Loretto, Tennessee destination, T-K sent two pledges to get the Ever-clear.

The weekend’s house party began and hour preceding the time that teaching laboratories concluded. Early arrivals fished beer cans from an iced tank before a T-K pledge relocated the Purple passion punch bowl to an outdoor party space. T-K’s anticipated the arrival of their female campus affiliates, the Sigma Maxma’s, or S-M’s, affectionately termed ‘little sisters,’.

Older T-K’s cultivated the fraternity’s pledges in terms of pledges’ interactions with the S-M ‘little sisters,’ using opportunities such as the house party to observe and encourage polite behavior. James Perkins, a recent T pledge, beelined from a late afternoon lab assignment, excusing himself he went upstairs to exchange rumpled classroom duds for a crisp Navy blazer and pressed trousers, shortly hustling downstairs to perform an assigned shift hosting the punch bowl

James’ other objective that evening was one demonstrating responsible alcohol consumption, or as an older T-K described it, ‘holding your beer.’ By the time James changed his clothes and came downstairs the punch bowl’s volume had sunk to a low level, too many orange slices and not enough booze. Another pledge assisted with resupply, innovatively adding an aliquot of Ever-clear pinched from grandfather’s tool shed. James manned the replenished punch bowl, politely chatting with three S-M’s while ladling the ‘purple passion’ product and slowly consuming two full Solo cups himself.

While most of partyers consumed a variety of alcoholic beverages, mainly beer and whisky, James drank exclusively from the second batch of Purple punch, demonstrating his capacity to conduct a conversation while drinking, retiring about midnight following a busy day. As others later recalled, the only predictor of future problems might have been noted in his slightly slurred speech, hardly unique to James, though.

Saturday morning was a different matter, though. Mid-morning fraternity pranks intended to awaken him advanced from icecubing his undershorts to ear whispers and vigorous shakes, nothing worked. Finding something seriously amiss, all of the fraternity members assembled beside James’ bed, shortly calling for an ambulance. James’ arrival at Eliza Coffee Hospital, prompted its staff to review resuscitation protocols in light of diminished responses and poor scores on a famous coma scale, one originating in Glasgow.

Clinical history-taking focused on contributions from drinking relative to his present illness.

An E-R nurse, Patty Brown, RN, noted that several of the university students bringing James there, showed signs of having been recently drunk or hung-over, although none of them shared James’ obtunded state.

A senior fraternity member confirmed that T-K’s and S-M’s had generally drunk a variety of alcoholic products, possibly prompting a second T-K to provide a useful clue. ‘James drank exactly two cups from the second round of ‘Purple passion. I was there to grade him on social interactions while drinking. He passed the test, that’s it.’

And that really was ‘it. ’ As is often case, someone with a smaller platform, in this case the admitting clerk, provides time-essential data. ‘One of the fraternity boys says the Ever-clear wasn’t purchased, he pinched it from his grandfather’s tool shed, who knows what it has in it.’

Nurse Brown phoned the Alabama person she trusted could help them, Dr. Robert Fink.

While Fink hadn’t completely adopted the Gdalman formula, he was generally reachable via a digital pager. Fink’s exchange with Nurse Brown and his Florence ER physician counterpart was brief, mostly listening and a few suggestions.

Blood alcohol testing revealed James had consumed alcohol, however, the technician performing the test reported inconsistent repeat values. The late morning 30 mg % result (0.03%) determination confirmed previous ‘drinking.’

Fink’s recommendation surprised his Eliza Coffee callers. ‘Start an IV-drip at 100 mg of absolute ethyl alcohol per hour and get a repeat blood alcohol. If this young man drank toxic alcohol, we’re at the end of its elimination phase but I would still like to block possible metabolism to even more toxic metabolites.

Fink’s second suggestion carried a ‘Perry Mason’ or even a ‘Columbo’ ring ‘See if any of the students there can retrieve the woodshed bottle. Do you have someone in Florence, say at the college, who could analyze its contents to determine if that bottle contained ethanol or something more toxic, maybe wood alcohol or anti-freeze.’

Alternative features of small-town charm and oppressiveness were reflected in Nurse Brown’s response. ‘We certainly do, my PhD husband, Jackson Brown, runs a lab that can answer that question if these fellas get that bottle down here.’

Confident her husband was using her weekend working as an opportunity to catch up with some of his own lab work, she phoned him at his lab. ‘Jack, we’ve got a nineteen-year-old male down here that’s not doing well at all. He may be ‘drunk,’ but it’s the wrong kind of drunk and the poison control people down in Birmingham have suggested he may have drunk non-ethanol alcohol, maybe wood alcohol, maybe antifreeze. Can you help us resolve what he drank if I get his companions to bring us the bottle?’

Jack, in this case Jackson Brown was good at detecting worry on the other end of the line. ‘I’ll drop by in a few to retrieve your ‘worry’ bottle and perform a quick test termed the iodoform reaction, one that distinguishes ‘er drinking alcohols from toxic varieties. It’s a quick-and-dirty but it’ll head us in the right direction.’

Later that afternoon Prof Brown phoned his wife to let her know the iodoform test confirmed the presence of a toxic alcohol substitute, methanol - wood alcohol. He had other news, too. ‘Per the radio, Alabama has Tennessee down by seven points but the game’s only in its third quarter.’

About five pm Dr. Fink called back to verify that the i/v-alcohol drip had been ordered and was onboard. He also asked the Florence ER staff to fax him James’ blood ‘chemistries’ that would facilitate some specialized chemistry calculations, ones he termed ‘anion gaps.’

These steps may well have saved James’ life but, unfortunately, they were insufficient to preserve his vision. Instead, during across following six days James progressed from legal blindness to low vision to no vision, leading numerous persons to ponder how only two Solo cups of a toxic alcohol could rob someone so completely.