Sugar Land's Medical Team, 1950

This photo comes from an article on Sugar Land that appeared in The Houston Post published on March 29, 1950. Dubbo Jenkins, Carlos Slaughter and Leslie Wheeler are standing on the front steps of the Sugar Land Clinic. (I was always terrified when I went in that door. Nothing good ever happened at the Clinic as far as I was concerned.)



I have a couple of stories I want to tell about Dr. Slaughter. I heard them when when a group of old-timers (all women) told stories about old Sugar Land over lunch.

The youngest woman (just a year younger than I am) said this: "Well, I remember the time I thought I was pregnant. I went to a specialist and he said I wasn't. I thought I'd go see Dr. Slaughter because I still thought I was. He took my blood pressure and said, 'You're pregnant. Go back and tell your specialist.'" (They all had a big laugh at that.)

Dot Hightower told this story: "I can't remember if it was Steve or Valerie, but one of them broke out with something ... it caused spots to break out ... Well, Mary took the child to Dr. Slaughter, and he said it was nothing - it'd go away on its own.

"Well, Dugan (Coach Hightower) saw the child and said he had something that would cure it. He made up this cream that was real black and said, 'Rub it on your face at night - be sure you don't get it on your pillow or sheets - but it will cure your spots.' Well, sure enough it did.

"It wasn't too long before Dr. Slaughter saw Dugan in the drug store. He went up to Dugan and said, 'Coach - you stick to football!'" (Everyone laughed.)

One more story. Someone asked another woman if she had any funny stories about Dr. Slaughter. (The second woman worked as a nurse at Laura Eldridge Hospital.) She shrugged her shoulders, grinned and said, "Well, there's one I can tell. He was diabetic, so he had to limit the amount he could eat. His meals at home were just a dab of this and a dab of that. However, when he was at the hospital he'd go into the kitchen and get a spoon. He'd go to the pots where the patients' food was cooking and go from pot to pot eating a spoonful of this and a spoonful of that. He'd get enough so he was full. I guess Vera Belle never knew he was getting second helpings at the hospital. (Everyone laughed.)

"I told him if I ever got mad at him I was going to tell Vera Belle what he was doing."