My life has taken a different course from many of my Baby Boomer contemporaries. I have mostly taken the direction of the high road. I attribute the majority of my choices to the constant exposure at an impressionable age to the principles promoted by the Boy Scouts of America. I learned much later that the Mormon Church is one of the biggest supporters of this organization. I believe that I have taken these principles to heart to a greater degree than many others of my generation although I am not a Mormon. Exactly how does a kid growing up in Rochester, New York end up in Mississippi via Michigan, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Mexico, Texas, and Montana? By telling my story, you will see how I came up with the title of this memoir.
I also enjoy writing and editing, and had been a reviewer for a professional peer reviewed journal in foot and ankle surgery.
Early in my youth I became fascinated by the scientific world; specifically in rocks and minerals. This interest naturally led to the inquiry of the composition of these specimens, hence the pursuit of the study of chemistry and physics. I learned about the localities of these specimens by attending meetings at the Rochester Academy of Science- Mineral Section. At those meetings, my interest in travel to these localities was stimulated by watching the seductive slide shows presented by the late William Pinch (williampinch.com) and to making field trips with my family and on separate trips with Bill to collect them for myself. I did not initiate the study of the biological and medical sciences until much later.
There are sentinel moments in time where choices are made that profoundly affect the direction of one’s life. I have revisited these moments in my memoir “My Interesting Life: The Adventures of an Itinerant Corn Cutter”. The book examines why I made the choices I did. Through a self-discovery course taken in the late 1990’s, I learned that my true calling was to be a healer and educator. When I shared this epiphany with my late lifelong friend, Dr. Richard Erenstone of Lake Placid, New York while we were riding on a chairlift together at Whiteface Mountain, I thought he would fall off the lift from laughter. “You spent how much on that course to find that out? I could have told you that for free”.
—Dr. Evan Meltzer, DPM
My Interesting Life: The Adventures of an Itinerant Corn Cutter is available in both paperback and e-book versions through Amazon – click here.
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Author’s Note:
The title of this memoir comes from the early history of podiatry as we know it today.
In Europe in the Middle Ages, there were vendors who traveled between villages carrying wooden tool boxes that contained crude cutting instruments. Something like shoeshine vendors of today, these early traveling “corn cutters” would set up their tool box and holler, “Corns to pick, corns to pick.” Folks needing their services would place their foot on top of the tool box or the knee, and the chiropodist (precursor name for podiatrist) would then proceed to take care of the presented calloused tissue. It was strictly a cash business. Fortunately for them, health insurance companies and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had not yet been established.
The surnames mentioned in the introduction are real names. With a few exceptions, the names in the text of this memoir have been changed to protect the innocent- and the guilty!