Dr. Richard Collins and his grandson Sean laugh about some of the pranks he orchestrated in Catholic School and later when he was in medical school.
Originally aired on November 4, 2005, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Transcript
Dr. Richard Collins (RC) and Sean Collins (SC)
RC: Sister‘d go out and ring the bell and that signified that anybody came in after that bell was late and got a demerit of some kind. And I was, that was a chronic problem I had, getting up a little late…and I grew to hate that bell. One time, I stole back to the school went in the window and stole that bell and the next day there was, uh, hell to pay because somebody had taken that bell. Sister said it was a sin against the school, it was a sin against the sisters, sin against the faith, sin against the Pope and I know it was such a terrible sin that I, ah, no way I could bring the shame on my family to confess that. Course sisters came and sisters went, and Popes even came and Popes went.
SC: And what did you end up doing with the school bell?
RC: I still have it …it’s by my bedside, and I joyfully ring it every now and then.
SC: What about as you got older, going through school. Um, a story about you seeing a woman who—I’m not sure if she was a psychiatric patient…
RC: Oh Mrs. Pepitone. This is when I was a medical student. One of my sisters for my birthday gave me a clip-on bow tie that had a red bulb on each side and a wire that went inside your shirt and down to a battery in your pocket and if you pressed the battery the tie would glow red. I thought it was a pretty dumb gift actually when I got it. But we got a patient in on the floor named Mrs. Pepitone. Her main complaint was that she was full of electricity and she would tell in this Italian accent, “I’ma full of electric!” And she was a conundrum for everybody; nobody knew what to do with her. And um, one day, ah, we had rounds and I thought, “I’m gonna wear my neck tie and see what we can do with Mrs. Pepitone.” While they were mulling her case I suddenly pronounced, “Mrs. Pepitone, I’ma gonna cure your electric.” So uh I walked over to her and I said, “I’m gonna put my hand on your forehead. I want you to push out the electric.” So she pushed and pushed and I pressed the battery in my pocket and my necktie lit up, and she says, “It’sa goin, It’sa goin, it’s leavin’ my body!” So uh she was discharged the next day. And uh the rounding man came up to me privately and said, ”I don’t I would tell the professor about that quackery.”