Memories of Childhood Doctor Visits

I can remember a couple of things about early visits to the doctor.  First, I hated going because of the allergy shots that I would receive there.  They hurt.  That and the doctor's office had a strong medicinal smell.  I didn't like going there.  Not at all.

There was one thing I remember, though, that I sort of liked.  Every doctor's office seemed to have a subscription to Highlights Magazine.  I would quickly thumb through the magazine until I found my favorite part - Goofus and Gallant.

Image Credit

Even though my parents did their best to teach us right from wrong, the Goofus and Gallant cartoon panel provided additional reinforcement to the idea that it was a good thing to behave yourself.  As the example above illustrates, Goofus is breaking bottles against trees while Gallant is disposing his waste in a trash can. Undoubtedly, some innocent kid came along and cut his foot open on Goofus' broken glass.  It seems like a simple concept, but Goofus never got it.  He was always doing the wrong thing.  Goofus' Dad needed to give him a good spanking, but of course that is not looked upon favorably these days.

I get the idea that Goofus is probably serving hard time in a federal penitentiary somewhere and Gallant is a quiet, successful businessman that serves on the city council. Gallant will be flying the flag tomorrow and celebrating Independence Day. Goofus has squandered his freedom and is a slave to his rebellious nature that constantly gets him in trouble.

In the doctor's office, you could always check into the latest Highlights to see what Goofus and Gallant were up to and, more importantly, to see if you were behaving more like Goofus or more like Gallant.  Gallant was polite, caring, giving, compassionate, and courteous.  No one is perfect.  We all have a little "Goofus" in us from time to time. Looking back, I think what I learned from Highlights Magazine is that there are a lot of jerks like Goofus running around these days, (in fact, at times it seems that the Goofus' outnumber the Gallants) but regardless, it is always best to try to act like Gallant.  That was the Highlight of painful trips to the doctor.