Something For The Pain an essay by Doc Span I worked on G and H block passing out meds and holding sick call. Inmates could see me by filling out a form. A paramedic, just out of the Navy, I was hired to help improve conditions in the brownstone fortress. They were some walls, built…

  Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, the young Doc played the accordion to entertain Dutch sailors at his Grandmothers  saloon  on the New York waterfront. In the sixties he made Chicago his home and learned the harmonica at Blues Clubs like the Checkerboard Lounge and Ma Beas on the Westside, while working as a paramedic at the notorious Cook…