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Doctor Forrester, after uh. You know, we have different associations. Say as a teacher after you finish, uh, school or say speech and hearing, you have to become a member of a certain association. Is this true also with doctors? Yes, yes. What association is it? But, you

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know, we, we can elect to be a member of it or not a member. Uh, you have to be a member of your, Well, it's nice to be a member of your local county medical society, your state medical society, and your National Medical Society. By that

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I mean the Wyandot County Medical Society, the Kansas State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. However, I elected not to be a member of the AMA, which is American Medical Association, and next year I'm not going to be a member of the state or the

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county. I'm, I'm, I'm also a member of the Negro, uh, local, this is primarily composed of all Negro doctors in the Kansas City and Missouri, both sides, Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri. These are Negro physicians who are members of, uh, a component chapter of

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the NMA, which is the National Medical Association. So next year I'm only gonna be a member of just those two. Now I'm also a member of, uh, I was an associate member of the American College of Physicians. But, you know, I can go on and on.

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There's American College of Geriatrics, uh, that I'm a member of and all you do is pay your dues and get your name on a little, uh, deal to hang on your wall. You never go to the meetings because, you know. It's not required. If you did,

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no, it's not required, but if you did, it'd just be sort of prohibitive. You couldn't, You would be taking a week off of, uh, a week off a month to make all the meetings. Um. So, what I'm going to do next year, I'm just going to

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save my money and just be a member of the Car Valley and the NMA, which is Negro oriented, Negro members in it, and I can identify with them, and I can support all of their programs because their programs are designed to help the Negro people. So

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that's it. That's all I'm going to be a member of next year. OK, uh, No. Not at professional level. Are you a member of maybe any of, you were in fraternity. Are you still active, I was here 6, this is my 10th year here. I was

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here 10 years before I was even extended off, you know, someone asked me to become a member of the grad chapter of Omega. So now I have gone to one meeting and I will pay my dues. I will at least be a dues paying member. And,

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uh, oh, I don't know. There are several other, you know, local organizations that I'm a member of, but there are a lot of, uh, like the NAACP. I have yet to be approached by them to become a member. Although I've been here 10 years, all of

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the other professional, you know, I think there are a lot of other professional doctors that I know of who have not been asked to become a member. Now, you know, they give these, um, membership drives each year. But I would like to become a life member,

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if I'm going to become a member of it as opposed to, you know, a sustaining member. You know, you pay the membership each year. But I've been too lazy. I said, I've been meaning to contact them myself, but I thought that, you know, you had to

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sit back and you just waited, you know, and people would come by and say, look, we'd like to have you, you know, a member of this. But then I found out that the NAACP is not like that, that, you know, you have to, you know, Start

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the initiation. If you want to become a member, you take your own, their own initiative and join. But then there are several other, you know, um, Local, uh, uh. Clubs or what have you or organizations that I would like to become a member, but these are

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ones where you have to sit back and wait until they extend you an invitation. So they consider that most of a prestigious thing. Well, I don't know. I, I, I think they do. I don't think it's very prestigious because I look at some of the people

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that are in the organization. You know, I'm not a social climber and I could care less about that, but I said I've been here 10 years now before my frat brothers even knew I was in town. And, uh, this, that's bad though, that's really bad because

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one of these frat brothers and I are beer drinking buddies every now and then, and he is, he has yet to say, hey, man, why don't you come on and join the grad chapter. So, I think, I think it's just a, a matter of people being

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too busy and too caught up, you know, in their own activities that, that this never crosses their mind. And this is something that I've learned about people in the Midwest is that they, um, You know, this is one of their characteristics. They just don't think. Um.

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You know, they don't have this, um, buddy down home type, uh, thing that you find in Mississippi where you look out for your buddy, you look out for your friend. They look out for number one, and that's it. You know. OK, uh, in the preliminary, you,

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you mentioned summer camp. Right. Meaning military. Right. Yeah. When did you become involved in the military? I've been a member of the United States Army Reserve for, this is my sixth year, going on my, yeah, my sixth year since '71. So 77 of March would be,

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I will be out of it. Um. But we have to attend, uh, two weeks of summer camp each year. We have to attend meetings, uh, three times a month. And we do this for 6 years, and, uh, what we primarily do when we have meetings now

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is that we give physical examinations to, um, other reservists, to people who are trying to get in service, people who are trying to get out. Um-hum. And we've had some pretty nice stations, you know. Was this on a volunteer basis? I mean, you. It was either

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that or be drafted. So, I didn't want it to interfere with my education, you know, and my residence and internships, so I just joined the reserves. So, uh, as a result, my education has not been interfered with, and I think it's broadened because we were able

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to, you know, go to bases like Fort Sill, Fort Bliss, uh, the big army hospital in Denver. I can't think of the name of that. And we've gone to Fort Linnwood a couple of times, Fort Bliss, and each of these, you know, facilities, you learn a

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little something each time you go. It's a form of travel. OK. You're, now you, uh, During the earlier part of the interview, we only had one child. Yeah. That was Preston Junior, right? Uh-huh. OK. You, you have three. I have, right, I have two girls, Sonya,

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Larish, And Nina. I think that's, she doesn't have a middle name. Right. OK. How old is Nina? I think Nina's 5, but she will be 6 her birthday. And, uh. Sonya is 11. And Preston Junior is now how old? 12. He's 12. Right. Now, he is

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enrolled in a private school. Am I correct? No, they, they were both, well, they were at Loretta last year, but they are now in a public school at, uh, Norman is at, uh, Eisenhower Junior High School and Sonya's at Kennedy. OK. OK, the decision for them

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to come from a, uh, private school to a public, that's very unusual. Well, all I wanted them to do was just get a good foundation. A foundation. You know, they were going to Loretta. So, I figured they had a good foundation. Now we could put them

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in public school. I don't think public school is bad because I didn't turn out too bad, so I figured it shouldn't be too bad. It should be better for them because they are going to school in a predominantly white neighborhood and, I'm pretty sure they're going

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to have all of the latest, you know, courses, equipment there. And I just think that kids do better when they go to a public school. I think private schools have a tendency, they live too much of a sheltered life. They're not exposed to, you know, what

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life is all about in a private school. And, uh. Have you, I'm quite sure you spoke with your son since he, does he find the, the change rather difficult? Has he been able to adjust? No, he's been able to adjust to it OK. He likes it.

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Uh, you know, he likes it and he's, one reason I think he likes it better is because they are boys. When he was at Loretta, there were very few, you know, boys his age, but there are a lot of guys his age and some of his,

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uh, you know, uh, kids in the neighborhood, We would go there and they're good friends, so he likes it from that aspect. Have you noticed any language pattern changes? Oh, not too much, not too much. If so, he doesn't say it around me. Uh, no, I'm

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not saying, uh-huh. Not language as far as profanity. But little, little slangs, whereas maybe they weren't saying that. Oh, sure, yeah, that's definitely been, yeah, I hear these every day. Little, uh, little, you know, uh, sayings, I don't know what they call them, I guess they're

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proverbial, but a lot of hip, hip jive talk that he did not have at Loretta, most definitely. Uh, your practice again. Usually, we'll maybe offer, say for just a regular office visit, first visit, Uh, Uh, ever encountering this specific, uh, specific person. Um-hum. Would it be

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contingent upon the type of problem they're having to what you charge, or is there a varied, uh, type, you know, cause I have seen in some doctor's office, they may have a list. Um-hum. Well, we, it, it depends on, you know, what, what, you know, it

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depends really, I, I think, upon how much time you have to spend with them, you know. Usually try to allot at least 10 minutes to each patient. Uh, it may be less than 10 minutes, but for a 10 minute office call, you know, it, it's usually

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averages maybe around 9 $10. Some doctors $15. Um-hum. Some doctors $6. It sort of depends on where you are. But it depends on the length of time. If you spend an hour with someone, and, you know, we have charts from surveys that show that the average

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internists time is worth at least $60 an hour. So you have to more or less, you know, this is all you have to sell is your time and knowledge. And uh if it takes you longer with uh uh you know, a patient who's more seriously ill,

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you have to charge them more. Whereas if it's someone who's coming in for a head cold, that's no more than 5 or 6 minutes at the most. And, uh, they just get the basic $9 office fee. But if you spend 30 minutes with them, then that

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fee might be $10 or $15 or it might be $30. It also depends on whether you draw blood, whether you do, you know, run other lab tests and this type of thing, but most people that we see are usually fall in the $9 category. OK. Yeah.

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Now, the other person, uh, meaning the, uh, are they considered receptionists? Right. Uh, are they screened? Do you hire them or are they sent from some agency? No, they, they're screened and hired by, primarily my uncle. Um-hum. I leave all the hiring and firing to him.

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I just work. OK. But, you know, we both are always looking for, you know, asking around for someone who has had any type of, uh, you know, training. In a doctor's office or a hospital, because these are the people who are used to seeing things. They're

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used to the terminology. You don't have to do too much retraining. Now, occasionally we will get graduates of, uh, these schools, but we found that, you know, you have to spend more time with them than the ones that you, you know, pick up from the hospital.

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I don't know why, but it always turns out that way. But most of the ones in the hospital, nurses' aides, so these girls have had practical experience and they have a little working knowledge about this, you see. Whereas most of the, uh, uh, the girls who

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come from the little colleges, they've all, it's all been just out of the book. No practical experience. They pick up their practical experience in the office at our expense, you see. Yeah. OK. Uh, you're also, I know you, you can have a, a patient admitted to

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the hospital, correct? Yes, um-hum. Are you, uh, like on call? Do you have a specific hours to be on call on specific days or is this just a, something that you would do for a buddy? Theoretically, we're on call, you know, for our own patients 24

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hours a day, really. Right. But by my uncle and I being in together, we rotate every other weekend. And then we're on call every night through the week, you know, for our patients, but like Saturday and Sunday, that I'm in the office on that Saturday morning,

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he is off that weekend. So I take all calls, but he still makes rounds on his patients. But I take all calls, you know, emergency calls, etc. If someone is, has to be admitted that day and needs to be seen that day or in the middle

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of the night, I have to get up and go do it. That's on that, that particular weekend. Now, the following weekend, I won't have to do that, but during the week, I would, you see. So, uh, then sometime, you know, another doctor will ask you to

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cover for him. He's going out of town for a medical meeting and his office will just refer all calls to me or whoever he asks to cover for him. So we do that for each other.