Des Moines University will honor members of the classes of 1993, 1978, 1968 and earlier years during their milestone reunions May 23-25 on campus. In addition to good times with great friends, reunions give graduates an opportunity to reflect on their student days. Below, Scott Havsy, D.O.’78, J.D., a retired certified pain management physician who resides in Puyallup, WA, shares a humorously musical memory involving a popular song by Arlo Guthrie.
Myself, Howard Wright and Paul Rossi did a takeoff on the song “Alice’s Restaurant.” I played the guitar, Howard Wright played the flute and Paul did the impressions of the professors, which included the neuroanatomy teacher, Dr. Gino di Virgilio; the pediatrician (?); Dean Elizabeth Burrows and a few others whose names unfortunately I can’t remember. The year this was done was 1975.
The intro chorus:
You can get your D.O. degree at COMS school of osteopathy. You just walk right in and sign your name on the line; you pay your $5,000 at that time. Yes, you can get your D.O. degree at COMS osteopathy.
First verse:
Well, I was in my senior year at school and Daddy said “Hey son…don’t be a fool…You can either get married or go to medical school…”
So I decided to take the path of least resistance and decided to become a doctor which wasn’t easy you see…
Because my GPA was 1.3…
I did some bad on my MCATS’s but I was sure there was a school out there that would take me,
So I got a bunch of catalogs and rifled through
Until I found the name of that school… COMS School of Osteopathy
Somewhere in Des Moines, Iowa
Wherever that was, but…
You can get your D.O. degree at COMS school of osteopathy. You just walk right in and sign your name on the line; you pay $5,000 at that time. Yes, you can get your D.O. degree at COMS osteopathy.
Second verse:
So I paid my application fee and flew into Des Moines where it was minus 23.
I got picked up the airport and stayed at the Atlas House, where I froze my ass off sleeping on the floor until the next morning.
When the student doctors living there woke me up and drove to the medical school for my interview…
I walked into a room and there were other student applicants there
Who looked as dumbfounded as me like they didn’t care
Then we were forced to take the MMPI
To see if we were crazy or if we lied.
Yes, you can get your D.O. degree at COMS school of osteopathy. You just walk right in and sign your name on the line; you pay $5,000 at that time. Yes, you can get your D.O. degree at COMS osteopathy.
That’s all I remember, but the funny thing was we had to provide a tape of the song to a student committee that was putting on the school dinner. However, what we played was not what they heard on the tape, so we could have gotten in trouble, but we didn’t. It was all in fun.
