It is the 20th anniversary of a notorious event in Milwaukee history...
the Cryptosporidium outbreak of 1993.
Milwaukee-marks-20-years-since-cryptosporidium-outbreak
What does this have to do with sales or recruitment you might be asking yourself.
Not much except to point out that as sick as I was I still showed up and got my work done.
Plus by writing this 20 years later I get to remember how as a heavy metal fan I joked that playing easy listening music made me want to puke. Easy Listening Music got its revenge on me that night.
I was one of the 403,000 Milwaukee area residents who contracted the parasite in early April of 1993.
I was working the weekend overnight shifts as an announcer at WEZW 103.FM radio in downtown Milwaukee.
As you might imagine talking on the radio can make your throat dry, so per my usual routine I drank several glasses of water during my shift.
I was still in college at the time and as I got back to UW-Whitewater Sunday afternoon I didn't feel "quite right." Nothing specific just a nervous stomach and that feeling that I always needed to have a bathroom nearby. That feeling lasted the week. Slowly progressing each day as I felt a little worse.
The following Saturday night I arrive back at the WEZW studios about 9:30pm to start my 10pm-8am shift. Jim, the announcer who was ending his shift, told me that I looked a little pale.
He asked if he could get me something to help by going to a pharmacy.
I told him about my week of feeling weird.
Of course by that time everyone in the city knew of the outbreak of Cryptosporidium in Milwaukee.
I lived in Whitewater. When Jim told me what was happening I didn't think I had it, after all the last time I drank Milwaukee water was a week ago and while I felt bad, I didn't have the diarrhea or vomiting that was being reported by Milwaukee residents.
I told Jim I would be fine and I appreciated his offer to help.
I drank a couple cups of water.
Jim left and I loaded up the CD players with songs by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap,
Sinead O'Connor, England Dan & John Ford Coley, and Barbara Streisand (yes, I was working at an easy listening music station).
As Barry Manilow's "Weekend In New England" ended, I turned on the microphone and welcomed everyone to the show, told them what songs were coming up and that I would be back with weather.
I broke out in an instant sweat. Stomach starts flops.
Commerical one ends.
Loud stomach gurgle.
Commerical two ends.
Stomach flops and gurgling. Burps start.
Station ID plays.
I burp and some bile comes into my mouth.
Hit the button that starts the weather music.
More bile.
Swallow it back down (gross but i couldn't spit it onto the control board or mic!)
I turn the mic back on and start reading the weather sponsor.
Stomach really churning now.
I start reading the forecast.
Stomach does several violent flip flops.
I get the shakes.
I feel more stuff rising in my throat.
I try to read the weather and sponsor faster but all that comes out is gurgling (try talking while gurgling mouthwash and you'll get the idea).
I keep calm and slow my pace to get the last words out clearly.
Doesn't happen.
Gurgle. Gurgle. Gurgle.
As I say the last syllables of "Here's Barbara Streisand on Easy 104" spittle flies.
Not wanting to throw up on the control board, somehow I have the presence of mind to click off the microphone and remember that the garbage can in the station kitchen is tall and always has a plastic bag liner in it unlike the garbage can in the studio.
I run out of the studio to the kitchen, stick my head in the garbage can and puke like no tomorrow.
I hear over the station speakers Streisand's "Evergreen" end and the automatic CD changer click to Gary Puckett's version of "Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon," and throw up again.
Gasping for air, "Nothing Compared to You" from Sinead O'Connor plays.
More puke in the garbage can.
Rinsing my mouth out with water I drink a little bit.
Big mistake.
"Love is the Answer" by England Dan and Jon Ford Coley starts and you know what happens...
Since that is the last song loaded in the CD players I have to go back into the studio and load more songs otherwise there will be dead air.
Weak and with teary eyes from the force of vomiting, I struggle back into the studio.
I load up "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" by Crystal Gayle,
B.J. Thomas' "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," and
"After The Lovin'" by Englebert Humperdinck.... and fall exhausted in the chair.
As the last song ends, I'm supposed to talk. I turn on the mic and immediately shut it off and run back to the garbage can hoping to be done before the group of commercials ends.
I make it back but can't think so I hit the station promo announcement and the next song.
I managed to make it for about 20 minutes until another wave of nausea crashed upon me.
To save you the play by play lets just say there was a third and fourth trip to the garbage can over the next hour.
I had violently thrown up a total of nine times.
Weak as I was I also remember my stomach feeling better.
I folded my arms on the control board and put my head on them, not lifting it at all for the next eight hours except to reload the CD players after every fourth song.
I managed to read the weather once in the 3am hour and to thank everyone for listening in the 5am hour as I switched over from music to our recorded Sunday morning public affairs shows.
Not wanting the next announcer to have to smell the mess, I lifted the heavy garbage bag out and put in a fresh liner. I remember the bag being very heavy.
Whether it was from all of my barf or because I was weak I don't know.
I do remember thinking "where am I going to put this bag?"
I took it out to the elevator in the hallway where I knew there was a janitorial closet.
There were a few bags of trash tied up there and I left my slimy bag with them and went back to the studio.
At 7:30am the next announcer, Bob, came in and saw my condition and told me to go home early.
I told him what happened and he said that the station gets its drinking water from the water plant on Milwaukee's south side, the same place where the outbreak started.
I stumbled out to my car and slept in the parking lot for an hour. I drove back to Whitewater but only got as far as the WalMart parking lot in Muskego before I had to sleep again I was so weak.
An hour later I made it back to my Whitewater apartment and slept.
The next day I was very weak but managed to eat pizza and sub sandwiches.
Two days later I finally felt completely normal again.
If you were reading this while eating...sorry for spoiling your meal.
Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy
Oh Ev...you are one heck of a writer! Glad you made it through and Happy Anniversary! - Lisa :)
ReplyDeleteEv, that is a great story. I have one for you.
ReplyDeleteFebruary 1996, I was staying at my folks' for the weekend. Went to visit my grandmother on Saturday who sent me home with some oven-fried chicken. Decided to have it with some of mom's homemade pasta sauce on Sat night (mom and dad were out of town). Sun morning I wake up with a knot in my gut. I called all my coworkers at WBEV in Beaver Dam, and not a one was willing to cover my shift for me. So I drove to Beaver Dam, pulled over twice to throw up in wal mart bags which I discourteously left on the side of the road. Threw up twice more when I got to my apartment, grabbed a bucket, and drove to the station. My shift was 1-6pm on Sunday afternoons, and I was supposed to be airing Dick Clark's Rock Roll & Remember off of CDs. At one point my now-wife called to see how I was, and while I was on the phone with her I managed to pass out. Dick Clark's segment came to an end, and I was out cold on the floor, Nichole was yelling at me over the phone. Not sure how long I was out, but when I came to one of my coworkers was calling on the hotline. I told him what happened, and he drove an hour in to the station to take over for me. When he arrived, I crawled out to the lobby and passed out. Nichole and one of her fellow RAs drove up to WBEV to pick me up and drag me back to my apartment where I proceeded to vomit another 17 times in the next 20 hours.
That was the first time I had food poisoning while on the air. Turns out that pasta sauce had been made 3 or 4 weeks earlier and should have been in the trash, not on my chicken!