Nearly every newspaper currently has ads reminding folks that it is again time to get flu shots. Especially senior citizens and those with chronic health problems. Since Sally and I fit both of these categories, we have been going to the local clinic for several years and feel like it is a good precaution.

Before being inducted into the army, I had a big dread of needles - as a matter of fact, I was just plain damned scared! After being in the service for two and a half years, I learned to tolerate most of the inoculations — all except the one for typhus. That one had a delayed action effect — about the time you were buttoning up your shirt, it felt like you had just been kicked by a mule.

I think most folks will agree that there is a knack to giving shots or drawing blood. Some nurses and doctors have a way of doing this quite painlessly, while other ones will sure enuf make you flinch. I don’t remember any of the easy kind when I was in the service. A whole company of men lined up and a group of medics gave mass production shots — some in the right arm and some in the left arm. After watching big husky guys in the line ahead of you keel over, you sometimes developed a queasy feeling when you arrived at the firing line.

I am going to brag on Sandy a registered nurse at our local clinic — definitely one of the easy kind. She visits with the patient all of the time she is giving a shot. I am sure this is a big help, in that it takes your mind off of what is taking place and you stay relaxed. So why not get in line and get your flu shot while there is still plenty of vaccine to go around.

Getting shots may not be everybody's idea of a good time but neither is catching the flu bug.