Bud

A couple of times a week, we are honored to have the old Doctors from the area stop in and have a cup of coffee and swap stories with each other. I am sure they can tell some pretty good stories of older times. I am sure that surgery, as in other things, doesn't always go as planned and would have to be improvised.

The very first day that I went back and said 'hi', I ran into one who had worked on me once. Dr. Goldsmith did a surgery on me when I was around 12. When I noticed him, I told him so. "Hey, I found a survivor!", he joked. Dr. Ford asked around when it happened and after telling him, he told me that he might have been the one who put me under. Wow, both of them in one room.

Their numbers vary from week to week but I always enjoy stopping by their table. The last two years, they have chipped in and helped us out for thanksgiving. Being "Old Bend" themselves, they understand what we are attempting to do.

A while back, when I stopped in at their table, I noticed a new one sitting down wearing a ball cap. He looked up at me and said, "Hey, are your Ron Hicks' son?". I looked down and their sat Bud Rose. Now for the old timers, they will remember him all the way back to Brandis Thriftway Drugs downtown. He then moved out to the new Bend Memorial Clinic when it moved out to the building that it is now at. He set up Rose Pharmacy there. The pharmacy has since moved to another location down the road.

Bud was old school Bend. He knew his customers and cared for them more than the money that they put in his till. That is a concept that has been lost to many businesses. Maybe we should be teaching that in our college classes as it seems to be somewhat of a lost concept.

You see, people like Bud taught me quite allot about how a business should be ran. I felt good to be able to share that with him a couple of weeks ago. I told him of a time back in the early 80's when I had just came back to town and was in a very tight financial spot. I ended up in the hospital for a few days and afterward had stopped to see my family doctor, Dr. Robinson. When I came out and went into Bud's pharmacy, I told him that I could not afford the drugs that were prescribed. Bud just looked at me with a smile and said, "No problem, I know your family and they are good people. Pay me what you can.". That really stuck with me through the years.

Bud and I talked of those old days and how Dr. Robinson would get together prescriptions for the people in Gilchrist and bring them to him. They would then take the prescriptions to the bus depot so that the people who needed them would have them that night. Now back then, their were no credit cards, only promises.

Later, at Bend Memorial, the docs would call out the prescriptions to the pharmacy and Bud or his son would have them waiting for them as they left. Now, that was service. I am sure that all the new insurance deals with pharmacies in grocery stores and such have hurt that business and helped to make it more impersonal.

I really enjoyed that conversation but what I enjoyed even more was the opportunity to validate part of Bud's legacy to him. You never know how that one good deed will come back or better yet, spread out to others. I guess it is kind of the pay it forward effect.