PUTNEY — After more than three decades, Alan Blood won't be sticking needles in people's arms anymore.
The 65-year-old Putney resident is retiring from his job as a medical assistant at Putney Family Healthcare, and his friends, patients, and co-workers threw a party for him on Nov. 1 at the Putney fire station.
Blood started working for Dr. Thomas R. Hoskins, a general practitioner, in 1981 at what was then the Putney Medical Office.
“He opened his office a couple of doors down from where we are now,” Blood said. “He charged $18 for office visit back then. We didn't make a lot of money, because we didn't charge a lot of money. Most people paid out of their pocket for a doctor's visit.”
Hoskins retired from his practice in 2006 after 26 years in Putney. Dr. Walter Slowinski carried on as the sole doctor for the busy medical office with help of two nurse practitioners.
Slowinski retired in 2010, and the practice ultimately was taken over by Brattleboro Memorial Hospital as part of its primary care network in 2012.
“There've been a lot of changes in the past few years,” Blood said, “but it still was a hard decision to retire.”
But he said it came down to one simple thing: “I didn't want to wait until I'm too old to enjoy retirement.”
While he said that BMH “is a wonderful institution,” Blood said he felt that he couldn't really fit in now that the office is being run by a larger entity.
So, with his wife, Ellen, Blood said he is now looking forward to a life with “more music, more exercise, more travel, more gardening, and less stress.”