Billie Lee Snyder
at age seven plays with her colt"Bird". The colt is wearing a
hat Billie was given to her by a neighbor and friend of her father, Nate
Trego. A small hole in the crown was made larger so both Billie and the
cold could wear it.
I Get My Tonsils
Out
It was hard to get eighteen-year-old girls to come up to teach school in
the Sandhills, so far from civilization. Often we were left with the girls
who couldn't get a school anyplace else. I remember one teacher as a mess.
I'll call her Miss Doe.
Miss Doe always carried a pencil,
lead first, in her mouth. Most teachers carried their pencils in their hairdos
or behind an ear. Miss Doe didn't have a hairdo and her ears may have been
too far from her head to hold a pencil. Anyway she always carried her pencil
in her mouth.
She called us up to her desk one at a time and told us to open our mouth.
Billie Lee Snyder Thornburg, ninety, completed
her first book in 2002, and plans two more.
She then took the pencil out of her mouth and used it to hold down the kid's
tongue, lead first. She looked in each kid's mouth, took the pencil out,
wrote something on a piece of paper and put the pencil back in her mouth.
Miss Doe repeated this process until she had given each of us eight kids
a good physical.
That night she sent a paper home with each pupil describing his state of
health. Bertie passed, but my paper told the folks I needed a tooth pulled
and I also should have my tonsils out. This sounded exciting to me for I
knew I would get to go to North Platte to have all that done.
I had already decided it might be fun to wear glasses and had convinced
Mama I had trouble seeing. After recovering from the cold I caught from
Miss Doe's pencil, Mama, Dad and I left the ranch early one morning before
daylight for North Platte. We were traveling in our open air Ford touring
car.
This was my day. I felt very special and wanted to make the most of it.
I'd never been to a dentist before but I didn't think it could be too bad.
Getting the glasses I knew would be fun.
Billie Lee Snyder Thornburg,
on the front of the saddle, her friend Gertrude Coker from Sutherland, and
Billie's little sister, Bertie, all fit nicely on gentle, old Snip.
I had no idea how they would get my tonsils
out and I wanted to get that over with first so I could enjoy the rest of
the day. After all it was my day!
On the way to town I asked Mama if I could get my tonsils out first. Mama
wisely said I should get that done last.
This was on a Saturday, so I wouldn't have to miss a day of school. The
doctors, dentists and the glasses man worked on Saturdays in those days
and one did not need an appointment. A potential patient just walked in.
If the patient already knew what must be done, he told the doc. If the patient
did not know, the doc figured it out on his own.
Our first stop was to the place to get my glasses. The man obliged me with
a pair of gold-rimmed frames with plain glass for lenses.
Our next stop was the dentist, but I remember nothing of that.
Our third stop was Dr. Simms. I think I remember everything that happened
in there. Mama told Dr. Simms I needed my tonsils taken out. As I recall,
there was just one room. It was upstairs in an old building in downtown
North Platte. I don't remember any chairs, just a couple of stools and an
old horsehair davenport that was raised at one end so when you laid down
on it you were still half sitting up. There were some other things in one
corner of the small room, but they are just a jumble in my mind. There was
no other furniture, not even an examining table, though that may have been
what the horsehair davenport was used for at times.
Dr. Simms had no nurse. He fixed a syringe full of liquid. There was a big
needle on one end of the syringe. He laid the syringe on a low table. He
got out a gadget with a two-inch wire loop on one end and what looked like
a screwdriver handle on the other. He put this on the table with the syringe.
Next he pulled the tallest stool over by the table with his two instruments
on it. He sat down on the stool and pulled the shorter stool up between
his knees and sat me on it. He gripped me tightly between his knees and
told me to open my mouth. I did.
That was my second mistake for the day. The first one was coming to North
Platte. I wanted Mama and Dad to take me back to the ranch NOW!! It wasn't
fun any more. It was getting mighty scary.
Mama had been standing by my shoulder, but the doctor told her to back up
and stand by the wall. I think she was giving him too much help handling
me.
Now there was just Dr. Simms and me and I still had my mouth open, but was
watching him closely. He picked up the big syringe and stuck the needle
in one of my tonsils. The tonsil started to grow numb. He did the same to
the other tonsil.
Next he picked up the thing with the wire loop on it. He stuck that in my
mouth and brought it out with one tonsil hanging on it. It wasn't so bad
after all.
He got rid of that ugly piece of red meat and went in after the other tonsil.
This time it hurt. I hollered but he didn't stop so I grabbed hold of both
his hands. He couldn't move.
Here came Mama from her corner. I don't know how he got Mama back against
the wall or how he got me to let go of his hands. He never let go of the
grip he had on me with his knees, which was a good thing, for I would have
been down on the street in a flash, no doubt with Mama after me.
What happened was the deadening had started to go out of that second tonsil
by the time he started cutting it out with that wire loop.
Somehow the poor doctor finished the job, got the second tonsil out and
laid me down on that funny-looking sofa. Mama sat on the end of it and we
waited for Dad to finish his business in town and come up after us.
I remember Dad coming into the doctor's office. I guess Dr. Simms knew Dad
as he said, "Hello, Bert. How are things?"
Dad answered, "Not so good, Doc. It's been a tough winter. How much
do I owe you?"
Dr. Simms told him since times were hard, his fee would only be twenty-five
dollars. Dad paid him and we got out of there.
The decision was made to stay all night in North Platte in a hotel. I knew
it would be fun even if my throat was sore, and by now it hurt something
awful.
We went down the street to the McCabe Hotel. I'll remember that hotel room
as long as I live. It was so nice. The bed was all made and there was an
electric light bulb on a long cord hanging from the ceiling right over the
bed. All one had to do was turn a little knob on the end of the light bulb
and you could see all over the room. At home if you wanted more light in
another part of the room, you had to carry the lamp over.
Also at home, any member of the family who was sick got whatever he wanted
to eat if it was possible to get it. My favorite thing to ask for when I
was sick was an orange. If Dad or any of our neighbors were going to North
Platte while I was sick, I got my orange. If not, I didn't. Here I was sick
in North Platte, right where all the oranges came from.
I told Dad I wanted an orange. He went right out and got me one. Mama peeled
it and gave me a section. I put it in my mouth and bit down. It burned like
fire.
All I can recall of my wonderful first night in a hotel was being in bed
and feeling terrible. Whenever I opened my eyes during the night I looked
at that light bulb and thought, "How nice. Mama left the light on."
The weather turned very cold during the night. The folks still had to get
me back to the ranch. They made a bed for me in the back seat of the old
Ford.
Old Fords then did not have glass on the doors, but they had curtains made
of a heavy black material. There were little windows of isinglass sewed
in the curtains. That made it possible to peek out.
There were four curtains, one for each door. When the weather got real cold,
the curtains were taken out from under the back seat (the gas tank was under
the front seat) and snapped on the doors. They broke some of the wind, but
didn't keep out any cold. It would be many years yet before they thought
of putting heaters in cars.
Dad put the curtains on the car. I got in the back seat and lay down and
thecovered me up. The top cover was an old buffalo robe we always had in
the car during the winter. We used it to throw over the car radiator to
keep it from freezing if the car was going to be standing still any length
of time. It also made a good lap robe while we were traveling. It was heavy
but it was warm.
We were on our way to the ranch, at least a four-hour trip. My throat was
awfully sore. I'd had nothing for pain since the deadening the doc shot
in my tonsils the day before. I don't think they had pain pills yet. If
so, Dr. Simms didn't know about them. It really didn't matter. My throat
was too sore to swallow a pill.
It seemed to me the trip would never end. All I could do was lie under that
buffalo robe and hurt. By now my throat hurt so much I wasn't even able
to ask Dad how much further.
I thought about getting back to our house and being put to bed on the settee
close to the big heater in the living room where Mama always put the kid
that was sick. That was the only time we were ever babied. To this day I
want to be babied when I'm sick.
It was late afternoon when we arrived home. The sun was shining in the west
living room window and it looked so much better than the hotel room.
Mama made the bed on the settee. They stirred up the fire in the big heater.
I was home in bed on the settee by the nice warm fire but my throat still
hurt.
It didn't feel any better the next morning, which was Monday. Bertie rode
off to school alone.
I didn't figure I could live long feeling this bad. I remember plainly calling
Mama in from the kitchen and asking her if I was going to die. She said,
"Gracious no," and she was always right so I forgot about dying
and started to get better.
I got well and was able to go back to school the next Monday. I was happy
I only had one set of tonsils and would not have to go through that again.
The kids there were all eager to hear about my surgery and I was just as
anxious to tell them. As I finished my story, one smart kid popped up and
said, "Don'cha know they'll grow back?"
That worried me for a long time, but it's been eighty years now. They haven't
grown back yet.
North Platte Traveler Magazine is proud to present our Spotlight features
for the Fall/Winter 2002 issue.
"Bertie and Me...kids on a ranch" is Billie Lee Snyder
Thornburgs recently released book. "I get my tonsils out", provides
a small taste of the delights in store for you. Filled with pictures, facts
and history of a time gone by, you will find this book fascinating, informative,
insightful and funny! Billie's charm and personality shine through on every
page. Ordering information is provided. We hope you enjoy it as much as
we did!
Emergency!..we all dread the unknown, what to do, who to call. Our
second Spotlight focuses on these issues. Emergency! will be a continuing
series, featuring the expertise that local officials and personnel can provide.
Knowledge is power. In an emergency situation, be prepared.
"I
get my
tonsils out"
an excerpt from "Bertie and me - two kids on a ranch" the
recently released book by Billie Lee Snyder-Thornburg
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Platte Traveler 
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North
Platte Traveler Fall/Winter 2002 Issue can be back ordered by calling 308-532-4040
