Cay-ent Get They-uh From He-uh

Dr. PETER AMES GOODHUE, M.D.

Announces His Retirement from

THE PRACTICE OF GYNECOLOGY

Effective January 1, 2010

So reads an announcement on page 7 in Sunday’s Stamford Advocate. An announcement, paid for by the doctor himself. It seems sad, and wrong. In another era this would be front page news with a two inch banner headline. There would be a feature story and additional commentary with testimonials from his thousands of patients, not to mention from the thousands of children he delivered over the past 50 years. But Stamford is no longer a small town and the Advocate is no longer locally owned or beholden to the community. Stamford is a far cry from the back country Maine that Peter loved and brought to the rest of us with his storytelling.

When I began my medical practice in 1987, Peter Goodhue was the President of the Stamford Medical Society. The Society was an organization that met four times a year in local restaurants. There was a brief business meeting, an occasional outside speaker and then a dinner. If there was a speaker, the presentation was always short, sometimes educational, sometimes political but never so intrusive as to distract from the primary purpose of the Society, doctor sociability. Before Christmas there would be a silly card game where winners got free turkeys. Once a year there would be a dinner dance with spouses invited. That era, along with the Society, has passed. Doctors are too busy or ill-tempered to want to socialize with each other. The rubber chicken dinners can’t compete with ritzy drug company seductions at the best restaurants. We have too many other responsibilities and too large a community to relax or be collegial. Peter, however, remains to this day the epitome of collegiality.

He is handsome with a full head of silver hair, a ruddy complexion and an easy smile that brings a sparkle to his Paul Newman blue eyes. He is always well dressed with a trademark bowtie, usually bright colored and flowered. And he speaks slowly in that Maine sort of way. As President of the Medical Society, he would begin his meetings with a story. If you have never heard a Mainer story I encourage you to do so. They are unique regional Americana at its best. They are told slowly with the distinctive “they-uh, he-uh” Maine accent and a Bob Newhart deadpan. Think the opposite of Henny Youngman with his one liners and you have Bert and I—the comedy team that brought Maine humor to the mainstream.

Amazingly, neither Bert nor I, Marshall Dodge and Bob Bryan, were from Maine. They were Yale undergrads with connections to Maine from summer vacations, great ears for dialect and a talent for low rent sound effects. Their original album, recorded for family and friends, went on to sell more than a million copies. They inspired the storytelling of Garrison Keillor (Lake Wobegon Days) and were forerunners to other styles of regional American humor such as southern redneck, as perfected by Jeff Foxworthy.

Excuse the digression, but what native New England story would be complete without one. Peter’s stories went on and on and, if there was a punch line, he never got to it in the first fifteen minutes. The audience of doctors would groan, and then try to hurry him up, and finally shout and heckle to get him to stop so we could eat our dinner. It was of no use. Peter would finish when he was good and ready. Now, after 50+ years of practicing Obstetrics and Gynecology I guess he is good and ready. He is retiring. One story ends and the next one, hopefully just as long and rich with that same Mainer spirit, begins. Q: Have you lived in Maine all your life? A: Not yet.

Sample Maine storytelling at:

http://www.islandportpress.com/BIwhichway.html