MARLA:  What were some of your first experiences?  Is there anything that stands out in your mind as one of your first experiences as a health aide after you had training?
 
BOB:  Well, it was not a -- not a hell of a lot of, I mean, pay.  I mean, you can't nearly -- nearly a lot of volunteer, not job.  That's the only time you need it.  There, you have to be on call all the time.  Those days, it was not much anyway.
 
It was a great experience for a lot of people, it was great.  I mean, to help people out.
 
MARLA:  What was the hardest part of the job?
 
BOB:  Hardest part?  That, for me, it was -- for me, it was delivering babies.  I don't know how.  I mean, I think -- that's the thing I never -- to train much on that.  It was other people that mother -- mother's care, or whatever they call it.  They do that more work than I do.  They.

MARLA:  The midwife?
 
BOB:  Yeah.  Yeah.
 
MARLA:  Midwife.  Okay.

BOB:  Yeah.  That's right.  I just -- the only thing I do is kind of report the kind of baby you have, how many pounds.  You know, the thing they do when a baby come, weigh him and boy or girl.
 
MARLA:  And the length and --

BOB:  Yeah. 

MARLA:  Yeah. 

BOB:  You measure them and weigh them. 

MARLA:  And so you didn't actually have to deliver on your own?
 
BOB:  Well, I did one.  We did one.
 
MARLA:  Can you tell me about that? 

BOB:  Yeah.  Yeah.  They had a -- had a baby boy.  It was kind of early baby.  She was supposed to go to Tanana or Fairbanks or one of them, we have to deliver them.  And Rachael had to do that.  She would do more than I do. 
She know -- she had babies her own -- her own.  So.

MARLA:  Rachael who? 

BOB:  Rachael Riley.

MARLA:  Okay.  And was she a midwife?
 
BOB:  Yeah, she was. 

MARLA:  Okay. 

BOB:  We kind of worked together, me and Rachael for a while.  And she helped me out a lot. 

MARLA:  So did you have to go to the person's house when they were delivering or --

BOB:  Yeah. 

MARLA:  Yeah. 

BOB:  Yeah.  Do that. 

MARLA:  Did you do a lot of house calls? 

BOB:  Yeah.  Some -- somebody go see me.
 
MARLA:  Yeah. 

BOB:  It's kind of hard for -- for me, it was kind of hard for me to take losing patients.  I remember, like this boy used to like to go see me every time he's sick a little bit.  And it was kind of hard.  I mean, to take it after he died, it was a big loss for me. 

MARLA:  Yeah. 

BOB:  Yeah.  I never got used to it before that. 

MARLA:  Right.  Were there some good experiences you had where there was, you know, you felt like you helped somebody? 

BOB:  Yeah, I think so.  I helped a lot of people. 

MARLA:  Is there any that sticks out in your mind? 

BOB:  With -- with the doctor, you know, advice. 

MARLA:  Yeah. 

BOB:  I don't do nothing except the doctor's advice.