Apparently there is custom or a game spreading through the web called blog-tagging. The rules of this noxious pursuit are that someone ‘tags’ you, you tell 5 little known things about yourself, then you ‘tag’ 5 others to do the same. It’s like an evil chain letter. A few days ago Regina Wilshire tagged me. I was going to let the spread of all this stop at me, but then I thought about it a little and decided that I could reveal 5 fairly innocuous things about myself without divulging any of my many perversions.

Unfortunately, since graduating from medical school and immersing myself in the practice of medicine and child rearing, my life has taken a turn for the dull, dull as dishwater in fact. Before medical school, however, I was a little different. I had a lot of bizarre interests that I pursued with a vengeance, most of which even my good friends don’t know about.

So, speak we now of the young pre-medicine Mike Eades and the 5 things few know about him.

1)In my last year of high school I was riding home on the bus from a baseball game (I played outfield, first base and catcher), sitting next to one of the student trainers. The guy was kind of a nerd and he was babbling on about searching for buried treasure. Being the well-raised Southern boy that I was, I about halfway listened but I did so politely. The guy really thought I was interested, so he brought me some books to read and gave them to me at school the next day. I did like most people do when given unsolicited books to read, I put them in my room and forgot about them.

For some reason that I can’t now remember I decided to thumb through one of the books. I started reading a little closer, and in no time, I was hooked. I became a treasure hunting freak.

Throughout the next summer and all my years of college I roamed through all the ghost towns in California, Arizona, and Nevada that I could find, metal detector in hand, hunting for coins, guns, artifacts, whatever I could find. I panned and sluiced for gold in all kinds of mountain streams in the gold country of California. I began collecting books on treasure, lost gold mines, old maps, and any and all related subjects.

I’m sure my parents had huge misgivings about my social development because instead of going to college functions, chasing women, and drinking beer, I took off most weekends for some dusty desert ghost town that I had not yet visited. No one my own age was willing to go with me on all these jaunts, so I recruited a guy who was my boss in my regular job, which was pumping gas at a Shell station.

This guy was from Switzerland and was about 15 years older than I. He viewed all these trips as major adventures unlike any he could have had in the old country. He and I made a great combo: I had all the knowledge, he had the money to underwrite the trips, a VW bus we could sleep in during bad weather, and the mechanical ability to keep it running.

He is still a friend of mine. He now lives in Reno, and MD and I spent a day with him driving through the Sierra Nevada mountains a couple of months ago.

My parents probably never realized how much all this kept me out of trouble. During my college years–and we’re talking the 60s here–(except for one forgettable occasion involving oranges injected with vodka on a field trip) I probably drank the equivalent of a six-pack of beer. I didn’t not drink because I was a goody two shoes, I didn’t drink because I hated the taste of anything alcoholic. (I’ve long since made up for that youthful indiscretion, however.) And, I didn’t use dope–I never even tried marijuana, not even once. (I made up for that in medical school.)

Did I find any treasure?

Not any treasure in the sense of chests full of gold, but I did find a lot of old coins and artifacts. The most money I made was when I entered a metal detecting contest at a Treasure Hunter’s Rendezvous (there really are such things, or at least there were) and won the grand prize, which was a valuable gold coin and a bunch of other prizes. But I had a blast and I wouldn’t trade the memories for anything. I can say that I definitely had a different college experience than did most of my contemporaries. Still, even now, when I see a picture of a ghost town or hear a tale of buried treasure, my blood gets up.

2)As an outgrowth of my lust for hunting for gold I got interested in sunken treasure. I took SCUBA lessons and soon got eaten up with that. I got so involved in the whole diving scene that I decided to become an instructor to help support my habit. My Swiss friend didn’t follow me into the ocean depths, so I had to find other funds for that. I ended up getting my L.A. County Underwater Instructor, PADI instructor, and NAUI instructor certifications in 1971, and over the next few years taught SCUBA classes along the coast of California from Santa Barbara to San Diego, in the cold waters of Lake Michigan in northern Michigan, in the lakes of Arkansas, in Florida’s Crystal River and along the Gulf Coast, and under the oil platforms off of Grand Isle, Louisiana.

During this time I had started to think seriously about going to medical school but at the same time I was trying to figure out how to finagle a commercial dive boat I had my eye on. In one of those great Jethro Bodine moments (one of my favorite episodes on the Beverly Hillbillies was the one in which Jethro was trying to decide whether he should become a brain surgeon or a soda jerk) I sat on the beach and contemplated my future. I chose medicine, probably because I could never get my finances together for the dive boat.

3) I spent a couple of years off and on during all this trying to worm my way into the movies. I had my portfolio made (which is a great source of amusement for my children today) and pounded the pavement going to casting calls for various TV shows, commercials, and movies. Since you’ve never seen me on the silver screen, you’ve probably realized that I never made it. I came close, though. My agent at the time (I actually had an agent) was Joey Vieira, Porky from the ancient Lassie show (long before Timmy and Lassie and June Lockhart and all), and he sent me on a call for a made-for-TV movie called Tribes, which ended up being an Emmy winning show starring Darin McGavin and Jan-Michael Vincent. I went to the call, talked to the casting director who told me that he would give me a role. He told me to go back and tell Joey to send over an agreement. In one of those inexplicable twists of fate, I never took the message back to Joey. I had something else I needed to do, so I left to do it, then never went back. That was my last attempt to get in the movies and probably the one that would have worked.

4)I am a huge bullfight fan and aficionado. I developed my interest when one summer during college I spent a couple of months in Europe under a bizarre set of circumstances. While there, I went to Pamplona, Spain for the San Fermin festival aka the running of the bulls. I had been up all night because I got there too late to find a cheap place to stay, and I ended up accidentally mixed in with the crowd running with/from the bulls the next morning. It was the first time I ever saw a fighting bull up close and personal, and I was stunned at how enormous they are. At the time all I wanted to do was get away, so I didn’t really appreciate the pageantry of the situation. Later on, when I was out of harm’s way, I reflected on my experience, and started reading about all the history and tradition of bullfighting. I told the tale of my running to all our kids, and when our youngest graduated, he wanted to go to Pamplona and run with the bulls. MD and I took him for a graduation present, and all three of us ran with the bulls in the summer of 2000.

A big deal at this festival is made of whomever the first person is to get seriously gored. On the first day (the festival runs for 8 days), that unfortunate honor fell to a guy from Denver named Montgomery Doyle. He took a horn up his rear end and had to undergo fairly major surgery to repair the wound. The local papers were full of the tale and crawling with pictures of poor Monty getting it up the you know where. We all began to refer to such a goring as getting the Full Monty. We watched for a couple of days, scoped out the situation, figured the best place to get to minimize the chances of experiencing the Full Monty ourselves (the bulls run way too fast to try to run with them for the entire course), and took our positions on the fated day.

All of us–MD, our son Scott, and Yours Truly.

I ran the probabilities of two people from the Denver area getting nailed (we lived in Boulder, CO at the time), and calculated that the odds against our being gored were astronomical (it was a ridiculous, meaningless calculation, but it made us feel safer). We waited and soon enough, here came the bulls thundering down the cobblestones, about 8 of them. It was a fearsome sight. Once the bulls ran past us, one of them gored someone, and I mean gored the bejesus out of whomever it was, and somehow the whole pack of them got turned around and started running against the crowd. It was a heartstopping moment as the crowd screamed as if one and tried to turn. Somehow the bulls got turned back the correct way and headed off, mercifully leaving us untouched.

One of my bullfighting heroes is (was) Manolete, who was mortally gored in 1947. I was delighted to learn that a movie is being made about Manolete, starring Adrien Brody, who looks a lot like the real Manolete. Before you dis bullfighting, go to the movie, and or read about it. It’s a great spectacle that’s hundreds of years old, and I hope it never dies out.

5)I am an artist of sorts. Since I can remember I have always drawn pictures and fooled with oil paints and water colors, but I’ve never really done anything with the ability I was born with. I’ve never had any formal training or spent a whole lot of time at it. I would just see it and draw (or paint) it. When I was about 25 I decided that I would try my hand at sculpture, so I made a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a civil war general famous among military historians as a great battlefield tactician. I ended up making reproductions and sold a ton of them to help–along with teaching SCUBA and student loans–put me through med school.

While I was in medical school there was a big annual juried art exhibit at the Arkansas Art Center. For whatever reason (I can’t recall now what motivated me to do this) I decided that I wanted to enter something. A zillion people from all over the South submitted their work, but only about 50 or 60 were accepted in the exhibition. I decided to try my hand at a ‘real’ pencil drawing instead of simply the quick sketches I usually did. I found a picture of some old guy’s face that I thought had a lot of character (it was on the cover of a gerontology journal that I found during my Internal Medicine rotation at the Little Rock VA hospital), so I decided to give it a whirl. I was fortunate enough to be accepted as an exhibitor.

Below is the drawing in case you are curious.
old-gome-2.jpg

The next year the contest came around again, so I decided to try once more. At that time I was on my General Surgery rotation at the VA, so I checked out the same gerontology journal and found another face with a lot of character and drew it. The drawing below was accepted into the exhibition that year.
felt-hat-2.jpg

I made a few more pencil drawings, but never submitted another into competition. In fact, since about 1980 I’ve never made another pencil drawing other than the sketches and doodles I do when I’m on the phone or otherwise occupied. Despite having the ability, I just don’t have the fire in the belly to be a full-time artist.
So, there you have it. Treasure hunter, SCUBA diver/instructor, actor wannabe, bullfight aficionado, and artist–five things most people don’t know about me.

I don’t know enough other bloggers who haven’t already been tagged to tag myself, so I guess I’m the end of this chain. MD threatened me mightily should I even think of tagging her, so I guess I won’t. But I will tell you something about her most people don’t know. In her youth, she was a beauty queen. Yep, she was in the Miss Arkansas pageant. I scored with a real babe for a wife. Smart, too.

19 Comments

  1. Spectacular drawings, Dr.! We’re all lucky that you focused your appreciation for beauty on Miss Arkansas, rather than making a vocation of it (and costing us all your valuable insights on health & nutrition…) You should sketch us a picture of MD (what a great anniversary present for her — I won’t whisper a word of it!)
    Hi Rick–
    MD won’t let me draw her because she says she’s not old enough for her face to have developed the necessary character.
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  2. Thank you for so many details and fantastic information, I have to say that it is always a pleasure to read your comments (about PP, science or in this case about you…).
    Your pictures are fantastic and I have been smiling while reading about San Fermín… I’m from Spain, and I got surprised really… you know… bullfighting is not the typical custom people use to understand easily… Although I have to say I’m not a big fan of it, it is a pleasure to read other people’s feelings about it.
    Thank you for everything (I’m following the PP WOE since September and it is really great…)
    Virginia.
    Hi Virginia–
    Thanks for the nice comment.  Most people don’t understand my interest in bullfighting, and, in fact, sometimes I don’t myself. It gets me in trouble with a lot of people, so I don’t as a rule mention it.  Now that I’ve exposed myself to the world, who knows what kind of slings and arrows I’m going to have to indure.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  3. What a great post. Memes aren’t usually all that interesting (despite their ability to spread faster than a flu pandemic) but you had a lot of interesting things to say.
    I would’ve totally gone treasure hunting with you, but not diving–I’m a little phobic of deep, open water.
    And very nice pictures. You’re very talented.
    M
    Hi Michelle–
    Thanks for the kind words.
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  4. >>Most people don’t understand my interest in bullfighting, and, in fact, sometimes I don’t myself.
    Not to get this thread too far astray, but it might have something to do with “The Word As Will . . . “, and/or “Nature red in tooth and claw”.
    Wonderful drawings, by the way. I’ve always been fascinated by the awe and respect that instantly accrues to someone who can draw. You readers of this blog, see if this is true for you: I don’t remember most of my classmates from grade school days, but I have no trouble at all quickly listing the names of those who could draw well ( John Nicksic, Bob Gardner, Jeff LaBudda ).
    Crazy.
    Hi John–
    Thanks for the compliments on the drawings.  Nature red in tooth and claw, eh?  Maybe.  Who knows?
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  5. Great drawings Doc! Being from Arkansas and a treasure hunter, I’m surprised you didn’t mention diamond hunting in Murfreesboro, or was it open to the public back then? I’m from Louisiana (Geaux Tigers!) and we made a trek up there to diamond hunt when I was just a kid. It was a pretty miserable experience though as it was freezing cold and raining the whole time. What made it worse was that we found nothing. I may end up back there for vacation to try my luck again.
    Hi Ned–
    No, for some reason the Crater of Diamonds park (“keep what you find”) in Murfreesboro, AR never held a lot of interest for me.  Probably because one can’t find diamonds with a metal detector.  I’ve never even been to the place.
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  6. I find it very amusing that you developed a liking for bullfighting. As a Latina I take that kind of thing for granted and should probably educate myself on the matter!
    Hi LC–
    I find it bizarre because it didn’t follow the normal trajectory of my interests.
    I was interested in SCUBA, so I learned to dive; I was interested in flying, so I learned to fly; I was interested in bullfighting, but I never, ever wanted to be a bullfighter, only a student of it. 
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  7. You’re quite the talented guy! Those drawings are fantastic. Thanks for sharing your tales with us. I knew you’d have some interesting stories.
    Hi Nancy–
    Thanks for the kind words.
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  8. Those really are great drawings! During your treasure hunting travels to Arizona did you ever go to Jerome? I always found it to have a certain funky charm thanks to all the hippies that settled there.
    Hi Esther–
    I did indeed go to Jerome, but I went there before the hippies did.  Same with Madrid, New Mexico.
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  9. Great drawing–we low carbers are so talented as well as smart.
    I have no problem with bullfighting, in fact, I think it shows real respect for the bull. Enough people continue to get maimed or killed each year to make me think the man vs bull contest is fair. The bull does win sometimes.
    I think we should show as much respect as possible for the spirits that feed us.
    Ole
    Marilyn
    Hi Marilyn–
    Thanks for the kind words.  I feel the same way you do about the bulls.  I was a little reluctant to post my attraction to bullfighting because I thought it would bring a lot of heat down on me.  So far, everyone has been pretty accepting.
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  10. Great post! Wonderful drawings!!
    I laughed reading this….you have a way with words that i envy!! I’ve also wished to be, but am not, an artist….or a singer….or musician.
    You can have the diving (no way! Phobia) and the bull running. I’m not sure how I feel about bullfighting…but I’ve always been facinated by it.
    Thanks for all the great posts!!
    Oh yea….how about a drawing of MD from a picture?? LOL
    Hi Cindy–
    MD says she’s too young for her face to have developed the character required for one of my drawings.
    Thanks for the kind words.
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  11. DEAR MIKE
    I AM WRITING FROM SPAIN, IN FACT I LIVE TWENTY KILOMETERS FROM THE PLACE WHERE MANOLETE WAS GORED TO DEATH, LINARES.
    MY FATHER IN LAW, 93 YEARS OLD, WAS SITTING AT THE ARENA THAT HOT AUGUST AFTERNOON.
    NEVER FORGOT IT
    REGARDS
    JUAN CARLOS
    Hola Juan Carlos–
    I would love to hear your father-in-law’s stories from that day.  I’m sure the movie will be shown in Spain.  See if your father-in-law is up to seeing it, then let me know how it was compared to his memory.
    Thanks for writing.
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  12. Wow, Now we see the benefits of being able to use both sides of the brain. Your artistry is quite impressive. It reminds me of an OB-GYN friend of mine. Of course, he is highly regarded by the medical field but he is also quite a jazz musician. I am glad that you were tagged so that we can see other sides of Dr. Eades.
    BTW, I saw your and Mary’s cooking show, Low CarbRX, early this morning. I was quite surprised. Is it new?
    Hi Mary–
    Thanks for the kind words about the art.
    MD and I do have a cooking show on Create Network and on the PBS HD network.  We’ve taped 26 episodes, all of which will run on both of these networks in 2007.
    Best–
    MRE 

  13. Love that you took the time to tell us a bit about yourself and not let the ball drop. Good choice in deciding to go to medical school.
    You are such a go getter and thank goodness for it!
    Thanks, Meredith–
    I don’t know about the choice.  I could be kicked back on a nice dive boat somewhere exotic eating my fill of fresh seafood.
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  14. Well, Jethro, soda jerk = fizzician, huh?
    I enjoyed your drawings and interesting yarns.
    Hi Joanna–
    Fizzician.  Brilliant!
    Thanks for the laugh.  I needed it while I’m here immersed in slide making hell.
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  15. Hello Dr.
    I’m not familiar with your work, but I’m interested in good health and nutrition, so I may return to see what you have to say. I came across your blog while searching for bullfighting blogs.
    I’m an ardent fan of bullfighting a hope to some day attend a week long toreo class at the Bullfight School of Tauromachy in San Diego, CA. Hopefully, I’ll start saving soon.
    At the age of 13 I wanted to be a torero, but I regret having obeyed my mom and never a actually tried the art. I was at the right age and in the right place at the time-I should have gone for it! I admire your courage to actually make it to Pamplona and participate in the run! Ole!
    You know, there are some good faenas to view at Youtube.com. Just type in matadors name or corrida or other related term. Toreo is fun, exciting, and moving when it’s all done well, clean, and professional.
    I’ve seen the Manolete movie trailer. It looks good.
    J.E.
    Hi J.E.–
    Good luck in your quest.  If you attend the school in San Diego please write and let me know how it was.
    I’ll hit the bullfight videos on YouTube.  Thanks for the tip.
    Cheers–
    MRE 

  16. I googled pencil drawings and ended up here. I have to say, I have not been so entertained for such a long time, I have also not touched a pencil for 30 yrs. I thank you for the sharing of fun and adventure and the returning desire to pick up a pencil.
    Hi Kaye–
    I’m glad you found the site and enjoyed it. I hope you stick around.
    Cheers–
    MRE

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