1950 Love is the Drug - Sex Stories

1950 Love is the Drug

Any combination of words can have different connotations for different people. The description 'no-nonsense', when applied to a person, may be interpreted as 'straight forward' by one reader and as 'unromantic'' by another. I am sure that many of you will have your own definition. This only serves to reinforce my point.

Everybody in the Dorset village of Upper Slingsford agreed that Doctor Andrew Craddock was 'no-nonsense'.

Dr Craddock never contemplated such things, he was too busy getting on with it.

Born at the turn of the century to a village doctor and his wife, Andrew Craddock went on to study medicine at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. After graduating he worked at the same hospital. Having seen for himself the worst that poverty and deprivation could do to a body, he was a life-long socialist. Not a political socialist, more of a practical socialist.

At a time when the quality of medical care that a person received was largely dependent upon their ability to pay, Andrew gave up his free time to work in a charity clinic. He wasn't sentimental about it; he was 'no-nonsense'.

When the war broke out in 1939 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was eventually posted to North Africa where he saw for himself what war and sand could do to a body. On three occasions he came very close to being a casualty of war himself.

His conscience often pricked him when, after the war, he had opted for a quieter life as a village General Practitioner. I am sure that ...

... none of us would hold that decision against him.

Up to this point Andrew hadn't married. He had nothing against women, in fact he felt that they were probably God's greatest creation. The problem was that every woman that he met these days was a patient and, as you know, the General Medical Council were rather opposed to doctors marrying their patients.

On the contrary, many female patients, both married and single, felt that Dr Craddock was fair game. Over the years he had lost count of the number of ladies who had presented with mystery illnesses that required them to undress and have their private parts examined. When he enquired, "Does it hurt when I touch here?" their usual response was often something like, "not as much as it did."

Other ladies would ask if their husband's bedroom peculiarities were 'normal'. His response was always the same. He couldn't say what was normal or even legal; he could only judge if it would do them any harm or not.

He took these things in good part and always remained very professional.

With male patients, he was far more no-nonsense. The men liked it when he encouraged them not to use euphemisms. He, himself, was brought up in a Dorset village so he knew the dialect word for every aspect of the human condition. If a fellow had achy knackers, he preferred that they said so.

As you would expect, from a man of principle, he gave nothing less than his all in the service of the people of Upper Slingsford. He provided the best ...