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6-- June 18, 2015
editor@newslj, corn
Local heroes
An official retirement ceremony was held for United States Air Force Technical Sergeant Stan Dixon on Saturday, June 13 at Weston
County Senior Services for family and friends to enjoy. The ceremony was conducted by former resident Randi Carpenter. Pictured from
left: Carpenter, Dixon and Stan's wife Tina Dixon pinning his retirement pin on. (Denice Pisciotti/NLJ)
The life of a lab technician
Donna Gochanour
NLJ Senior Correspondent
Mary Lou Buffington was a
high school girl in the 1950s. In
those days, most girls ended up
being schoolteachers or nurses or
secretaries. She was a straight-A
student and was taking classes to
become a secretary, but she had
one problem -- she flunked every
typing test they ever gave her.
"I had a very good counselor,
an excellent teacher at the time,"
she recalled, "and she said to me,
'You know, Mary LOa; you will
ndver be a secretary.' So she asked
me, 'What do you like to do? Do
you like chemistry and stuff like
that?'"
Mary Lou told her that she
liked that very well. So they sat
down, and the teacher helped her
find a scholarship. Mary Lou got
a job waiting tables as she went
through the University of Colorado
at Boulder. She became a lab tech-
nician, a job that she loved.
Mary Lou graduated in 1959
and came to Newcastle to work at
the old hospital on the hill, where
she worked until the new hospital
opened. Then she worked another
three or four years. She said that
most people probably didn't even
know she was there because she
spent her time in the lab, analyzing
blood and urine samples as they
came in.
She said that she "also gave
about a million EKGs." At least it
felt like it at times.
In those early days there was no
blood bank, but they had a donor
list. If somebody needed blood, she
called a person of the right type on
the list to come in and donate. She
then prepared it for transfusion.
After three or four years, they
finally got a much-needed blood
bank, she said.
At this time, the hospital had
about 30 beds and they were all full
most of the time. There were often
beds in the hallways. Dr. Thorpe,
Dr. Franz and Dr. Stephenson were
all kept busy. The oil boom was
on, and a lot of babies were born.
There were also a lot of accidents
that occurred as the county's popu-
lation grew and prospered.
Buffington gave high praise to
Dr. Franz. She said that he was an
outstanding Surgeon.
"There wasn't a better one in
the state of Wyoming," she said.
Mary Lou married Dick
Reutner and had three children,
all of whom went to school in
Newcastle. Eventually they sepa-
rated, and a few years later, she
and Bob Buffington were married.
Mary Lou Buffington arrived in Newcastle in 1959 to work at as a lab
technicican Weston County Memorial Hospital, the old hospital on the
hill. (Donna Gochanour/NLJ)
Senior Happenings
Weston County Senior Services
June 18: Trip to The Lodge
June 18: Mexican Train 1 p.m
June 18: Ceramics 1 p.m.
June 19: Bridge Ladies 1 p.m.
June 20: Open Rec
June21: Happy Father's Day
June 22: Visually Impaired Support
Group 1 p.m.
June 23: Mexican Train 1 p.m
June 24: Manor visits for lunch
June 25: Ceramics 1 p.m.
June 26: Blood Pressure Check
9:30 a.m.
June 27: Rec Room Open
June 30: Mexican Train 1 p.m.
Weston County Manor
June 18: AI And The Gang Birthday
Party 2 p.m.
June 19: Greedy 10:30 a.m.
June 20: Movie 2 p.m.
June 21: Proverbs 11 a.m.
June 21: Father's Day Coffee 3 p.m.
June 22: Wii 10:30 a.m.
June 22: Crazy Cart 3 p.m.
June 23: Ceramics 10:30 a.m.
June 24: Catholic Study 10:00 am.
June 24 Crossword 10:30 a.m.
June 25: Manor Squares
10:30 a.m.
June 25: Manicures 2 p.m.
June 26: Bingo 2 p.m.
June 26: Movie 6 p.m.
June 27: Hangman 11 a.m.
June 27: Happy Hour 3:00 p.m.
June 28: Trivia 11 a.m.
June 29: Patio Happy Hour 3 p.m.
June 30: Ceramics 10:30 p.m.
June 30: Keepsake Krafters 2 p.m.
June 30: Stories 4 p.m.
We are pleased to recognize Scottie Murray
for organizing the clean-up of Sheridan
Ave., and appreciate the initiative shown
by he and his neighbors to beautify their
little corner of our community.
Wheels of
progress?
Wyoming
Refining
Company
Success
is no
Accident
RE F I N I N G.
LC
Last week, I decided that in my stage of life,
I'd like to be able to call long-distance from the
comfort of my couch instead of getting in my
car and driving down to the highway to get
reception on my cell phone. Now, most of
you can understand the restrictions of limited
income, but I got tired of the whole thing, after
all, how many more years do I have? Do I want
to squander any more time sitting on the corner
of U.S. Highway 85 and Salt Creek Road? So
I called our telephone company, and the sweet,
friendly voice assured me, "No problem!"
But I would have to sign a form. Hmm. A
form, huh?
"I can mail you one," she said, adding the
question, "Do you have email?"
Yup. I have email. So I tell her where to
send it, and she says, "Just sign it and send
it back, and we can have you in service this
afternoon."
Oh cool, way cool, [. think. Well, that's
about as far as 'I thought. She assures me that
I can print it and sign it and get it back to her.
Quick as a bunny (there sure are a lot of
those this year), here it comes -- an email with
an attachment. Okay, so I get the attachment
open and, sure enough, there's a place for me
to sign. So I print it and sign it. I finally figure
out that I have to drag my printer program up,
but I am able to scan it to
my computer. So I drop it
into the "My Documents"
folder. There are some-
thing like 921 documents
in this file, but as soon as
I figure out that they are
alphabetical, I can find it.
From there I put it on
my so-called "Desktop,"
that imaginary desktop Dml(hhan:ur
on the screen in front I RememberWhen
of me, as a shortcut.
Sometimes it lets me put it into a shortcut and
sometimes not -- it just depends on how the
computer is feeling, I figure. 'J
So now I've got it where it can't get away, q
and all I have to do is figure out how to attach it z
to an outgoing mail to the telephone company, a
Gee, and only about three hours has passed!
This is really speedy. .
Well, I open my email and locate the email '
she sent to me and tell it that I want to reply to "
it. So up comes a screen with a place to answer ,t
back and, by sheer good luck, I manage to pull ,i
that little shortcut thingy over to it and get it to e
attach itself to the reply. It says "SEND," sol
do! Then I wait. Nothing happens. ....
In the morning, I call the nice lady at the. :
phone company, and she says it's all fine and "
I now have long distance! Just to be sure, I
call cousin Marlys in Minneapolis, and sure "
enough, there she was.
Now when all is said and done, I hear a lot ¢
about how much faster this all is, how easy, but ,1.'
I tell you I was sweating blood almost from the
strain of trying to figure the whole sequence 3
out. I am thinking of putting together our high :)
school yearbook in 1951. We had a mimeo- r
graph machine and manual typewriters. The
yearbook got put together and I still have my
copy of it, with the bright red cover. I used to !
love that "zing" when I slammed that carriage '
back for the next line! c
A computer just doesn't have any zings on t'
it. Writing letters by hand has become a lost '
art, and even books are trying to flee from the ?)
scene. Let me tell you, if the "grid" ever goes
down and all the computers in the country "=
don't work, we are going to be in a world of
hurt. That would be a veritable nightmare! ¢
Nobody can write anymore; if they can't
use a couple of fingers to make a text, they gr
are in big trouble. Let me point out that most "e
of them cannot spell either. Worse yet is the '
autocorrect. It makes me crazy to see "track"
for "tract" of land. Or "hear" for "here." The
autocorrect then is busy making "but" turn into 7
"buy" and similar things like that. Somebody '<
up there in Computer Land is having a blast 7
with stuff like this, and they are uncontrollable, ,r
so I guess it's a lost cause! You can't fix what i,
you can't even find on the computer! '
G