Saturday 25 August 2012

Nurse Blunt.


Ah, Nurse Blunt....

When I was small, there was one character in our small Surrey village who was both admired, and feared; Nurse Blunt.

Ms Blunt was the local District Nurse. She was a 'well built' lady (from the Hattie Jacques mould), and travelled around either in a Morris Minor (as above), or by bicycle.

Whenever Nurse Blunt appeared at the door, you knew you were in for a jab. There was no other reason for her to be there. She even tracked me down to my school once, to administer a Polio jab (I think).

I have great nostalgia for the village characters of my childhood, and dear Nurse Blunt counts amongst the best of them. I can still picture her on her bike; navy blue uniform, big billowing cape, and torture kit in the wicker basket. She also wore a hat rather like those worn by off-duty airline trolley girls. 

Our village just wouldn't have been the same without dear Nurse Blunt. I wonder if she is still remembered, with the same affection, by others?



19 comments:

  1. Doesn't ring any bells at all!!!!

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    1. I'm very surprised. Maybe it was just me who received all the jabs.

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  2. Now there's a model for social healthcare! If, globally, we permanently rescinded the breathing rights of half of the national politicians, all of the members of every board of every multi-national and of all professional footballers how many Nurse Ratchets with Morris Minors (or El Smarty Cars) would that fund I wonder? I reckon you could get close to 350 by cancelling Tony Bliar alone ...

    At one country skule I went to our meals were delivered by blue Morris Minor van and a chap in a warehouse coat.

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  3. The only nurse I remember from school was the 'nit nurse'.

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  4. Those were the days; GP's made home visits and knew all the family by name; even nit nurses wore proper uniforms. However, I remember that the syringes and needles were much larger - and they hurt.

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    1. Like nurse; like syringe.... probably all BLUNT.

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  5. apparantly we had a village nurse just like her too

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  6. reading your comment on John's blog;
    on behalf of all the women (and some ladies) for whom you open doors...a GREAT BIG thankyou!!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you T and B, I've always done so, and always will; regardless of the reactions.

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  7. The district nurse in the small village where I grew up was my mother.

    I saw how the job changed over the years from being patient-centred to paperwork-centred. Very sad. Perhaps it is just starting to go back the other way.



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  8. People would pay good money for those enemas these days.

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  9. when I was a child in America, we lined up at shot clinics to receive our immunizations. That, and certain school days were given over to nurses coming in and giving shots. The chicken pox shot was the worst -- they stabbed your arm multiple times to 'stratch' the vaccine into your skin. Ugh.

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  10. I still have nightmares of queuing for "jabs" at school in our vests and pants . . . In the dreams I keep moving further towards the back of the queue. (maybe; never facing my fears) deep man ;-) x

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  11. I worked as a district nurse for a while in the 80s. We used to call it being "on district". But I drove a Toyota instead of a bike, and we didn't wear uniforms. I would much rather have done my rounds on a bike in a village!

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  12. We got our jabs at the Doc. But I do remember queuing for a sip of something. The rumor was rife (probably started by some sharp-thinking little boy) that we were going to have an injection. Oh the relief when it was just a tiny drink in one of those minute folded paper cups.

    But I DO remember Miss Demontorque (sp?) the dental nurse and trips to the 'Murder house'. Lovely woman.

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  13. I like the idea of a village nurse, scary though she may have been. And my Mum was born and grew up in Purley!

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  14. We did not have house to house nurses. Only the milkman and the insurance agent came to our home.
    I am not sure where I got my immunizations, probably school. I like your Nurse Blunt story.

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  15. We didn't have a Nurse Blunt, but we did have school days where all of us were immunised from polio. Sometimes it was a jab, but the boosters were some liquid squirted on sugar cubes, which i thought was wonderful.

    Our first doctor that i remember made house calls. There were two doctors in my town, and if he came to our house because one of us had something contagious, he went to all the other houses around us with kids to let the parents know. It didn't matter if they weren't his patients, he knew all of us played together and if one of us had measles, say, it was a good chance that others would get them, too. God bless Dr S.

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