Gaylord Farms in the 1940s.
As an innocent young whippersnapper, I worked at Connecticut's famed Gaylord Farms Hospital, which had begun life in 1902 as a tuberculosis sanatorium but had moved on by the 1960s to become one of the leading rehab hospitals in New England.
Among the hospital's more famous patients were Eugene O'Neill and Thornton Wilder.
But the hospital had another, less glamorous side that I was quickly introduced to by Head Nurse Mary Margaret, a full-starch old-school practitioner-cum-administrator who could have been the inspiration for Nurse Diesel in Mel Brooks' High Anxiety.
That less glamorous side was that Gaylord was a swanky but low profile drying-out tank. The whispers were that Wilder, famous for 'Our Town' and 'The Bridge of San Luis Rey' had been such a guest, at least once.
What Head Nurse Mary Margaret taught me was that I was not to trust appearances, but to verify them.
Those who checked in to dry out often arrived chauffeured, with piles of suitcases and wardrobes containing clothes and other necessities for an extended stay.
My assignment was to help a nurse go through absolutely every piece of personal luggage and investigate everything that could possibly hold liquid to see if the guest was attempting to smuggle hooch onto the premises. Every lotion and shampoo bottle, all perfume, toilet water, cough syrup and other 'medication' containers were to be opened, sniffed and the contents discarded if they smelled boozy.
We were told to be ruthless about it because it was for the good of the patient. How could anyone expect to dry out otherwise?
Which brings me to the point of today's post: Bailing out Wall Street.
Some sort of fix is needed. It is not likely to happen on its own. There will be a bailout. The question is how much will it cost?
That cannot be known because we do not know how much of this 'toxic waste' is on the books of the banks and financial institutions in such fraught condition.
Why?
Because they have hidden it, lied about it, don't want to reveal it, and hope it will never be found out. Just like the incoming patients at Gaylord.
But we need to find out, to get to the very bottom of the bottom of the mess in order to understand what it is going to take to fix it.
Or else, like those patients who dried out only temporarily and then relapsed, we will be faced with yet another 'emergency' and another bailout.
Thank you Head Nurse Mary Margaret for the life lesson you taught.
It's for the patient's own good.
-- Dan Damon
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