How I Learned What a Crock Was

In the fall of 1955, I moved to Kansas City to begin field work at the University of Kansas Medical School, as the first fieldworker in a project led by Everett Hughes, part of a team that eventually also included Blanche Geer and Anselm Strauss.1 We were going to study medical students and medical education but, to be truthful, I had very little idea of what I was going to do beyond hanging around with the students, going to classes and whatever else presented itself.