Regarding the coronavirus, do any of you folks remember being

[rzemanfl]

confined to your yard as a child because of polio? I have a distinct memory of that. I was one of the first kids to get the Salk vaccine so I would have been pretty young at the time. I can't remember if it was my parents' rule, a request by health officials or an official act.

[Lindsay]

1. I don't remember being confined to the yard,

but I do remember that people were warned to stay away from community swimming pools. We didn't have one near where I lived at the time, so that didn't affect me. I had the Salk vaccine, too, and later the Sabin oral vaccine just to be extra-safe.

[rzemanfl]

8. I remember no movies, no drinking fountains as well.

I got the vaccine at school. I was born in 1947.

[Luz]

10. I couldn't play in the ditch after a rain.

[rzemanfl]

12. I used to come home so muddy my mother would spray me with a hose. n/t

[Polly Hennessey]

37. Same for me. Got the vaccine, both Salk

and Sabin. Did what we wanted. I do remember the public swimming pool warnings.

[PCIntern]

2. Born in 1953, I was lucky.

Some kids in our neighborhood, not so much.

[Mossfern]

3. I don't remember being confined to our yard

but I do remember being lined up in the school hallway to get the Salk vaccine.
I was born in 1948.

[wryter2000]

27. Same here

People were rightly terrified of polio.

[MineralMan]

4. I do remember parents being worried.

I got the Salk vaccine at age 12, when it was first available. Huge line of kids waiting for their shots.

[rzemanfl]

11. I'm pretty sure I got it when I was in second grade.

We went in by classes. Not crying was a big thing, at least for the boys. I remember the girls, not so much.

[MineralMan]

13. My brother-in-law had a mild case of polio

in elementary school. He recovered fully. Other kids weren't so lucky, but very few got it in my small town. When I was 5 years old, though, I got taken to the hospital one time because I had the stomach flu. Polio often presented first with nausea and vomiting. Pretty scary for parents in the early 50s.

[rzemanfl]

15. I was in the Chicago suburbs. n/t

[Ms. Toad]

16. Not sugar cubes?

Our vaccination was by sugar cubes. Early 60s, I believe.

[MineralMan]

17. Nope. The original Salk vaccine was a shot.

I got it in 1957 or 1958, because I remember being in Junior High school when it showed up. We got marched out of school to the nearby Veterans Memorial building where we lined up for our shots. Several kids in front of me fainted.

[Ms. Toad]

18. Looks like the oral vaccine was about 6 years after the injection.

The first article I found discussed them as if they were going on simultaneously.

[MineralMan]

21. Thanks for that info.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

19. You should have gotten it in 1955, because that's when the first mass vaccinations were.

I recall being lined up with hundreds of kids in a field near where we lived, although it's probable we were simply outside and on grass so I'm remembering it as a field.

My mother, who was a nurse, helped give the shots.

[MineralMan]

20. Small farming town in California.

I know it was when I was in Junior high, so it had to be 57 or 58. We were probably late in the schedule.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

39. Interesting.

I was under the impression that every single kid in the country got the first round of mass inoculations in 1955.

[MineralMan]

40. I don't think so.

I'd have been in fifth grade then, and I'd remember it, I'm sure.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

79. I likewise think you'd remember.

I do know that late in 1955, after some bad vaccines got out, the vaccination program was suspended. I'd thought it was re-instated within a couple of months, but chances are I'm wrong on that, and that your town was lower down on the list of places to get the vaccine, and that's why it was delayed so long where you were.

We lived in Utica, NY at the time, and the Catholic School we attended was one of the ones that was part of the clinical trials. My sister was in the correct grade at the time to be part of the trials. Alas, our school got the placebo and she still had the joy of going through the series of shots again a year later.

Several years ago I read an excellent book about the more recent history of polio (starting I think in the 19th century), the development of the Salk vaccine, its testing, partial failure in the beginning, and ultimate triumph. Searching on line for it I can't seem to find it, which is too bad, because I'd like to recommend it. It might possibly have been Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky, but the cover posted on line does not look familiar.

[rzemanfl]

29. That would have been when I was in second grade so it fits my recollection. n/t

[Turbineguy]

5. My Wife's Sister died from it.

[beachbumbob]

6. as recent as 12 years ago we had local quarantine do to whooping cough

and last for 2 week periods where families were confined to their homes under a health dept edict.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. Too young

But my parents told me about getting the vaccine - and my older uncle lived in my Great Grandfather's house when he got it. He's 82 now - and never had any complications from it (paralysis and such) but was a pretty sick little guy. My Grandma went with him (same property - old slave cabin that was modified and modernized at the turn of the last century) and everyone else stayed in the big house. He almost died.

[Raven]

9. I was at summer camp in Maine. They closed the camp and kept us in and

everyone else out.

[Ms. Toad]

14. Just before my memory -

We went and dutifully ate sugar cubes (the method of vaccination then) when I was in the K-6 age range. A slightly older neighbor spent her life in an iron lung, but I was not specifically aware of it until the sugar cube.

[GoCubsGo]

22. No, but I do remember getting a booster vaccine before I started kindergarten.

They had the oral vaccine at that point. It came in sugar water, and was dispensed in a little plastic ampule. It had become available in the US during the year I was born.

[jpak]

33. Yup - oral vaccine in sugar-water in a tiny Dixie cup

No one objected.

No one.

[shanti]

52. Vaccine on a sugar cube

is how I got mine. Early 60's.

[Amishman]

23. Topics like this remind me of the huge age skew on here

I'm a child of the 80s, polio to me is something out of a history book and it surprised me to see it being discussed from a personal experience perspective

[dewsgirl]

34. I was a child of the 80's as well, my parents each had

a vaccination scar. I remember being little and terrified at the thought.

[Mossfern]

41. The vaccine scar

is most likely from the smallpox vaccine. The polio vaccine didn't leave a scar.

[dewsgirl]

50. Oh..i forgot.

[jberryhill]

54. We called it the "human test"

"Are you human or alien? Let me see."



Only the humans have them.

The aliens don't have them.

[dewsgirl]

63. It looks so painful.😳 Did It hurt? I remember always thinking

the scars always look like multiple little shots.

[jberryhill]

66. No, the injury was not directly from the injection

The injection was multiple shallow pricks that didn't penetrate deep into the skin, but just below the surface.

The vaccine would actually kind of "incubate" there and a small blister would form, scab over, and heal. The scar is from that inflammation and healing, not directly from the vaccine application itself.

The extent of the scarring was just a function of how sensitive that person's skin happened to be to the inflammation that the process would cause.

[dewsgirl]

68. Thank you, they were always a big source of anxiety when

I was little and terrified of shots. It's weird the things that stick with you.

[jberryhill]

75. Imagining all of those Marching Dimes was what got me

[dewsgirl]

76. LoL🤣

[hedda_foil]

89. That's from a smallpox vaccine.

[jberryhill]

90. Yep. That's where this sub thread went

[hedda_foil]

92. I typed it and forgot to post it for an hour or so and missed the posts in between.

Oops.

[jberryhill]

93. So, as long as we're here

How are you holding up?

My wife and I are cocooning naturals, so I hate to say that we really haven’t had to change much.

[hedda_foil]

94. Thanks jberry! I'm hanging in.

I miss my teaching gig but I was a freelance writer for years so holing up isn't much of a problem. The good news is my daughter made it back to Chicago from India, where she's worked for the past few years, the day before the mob scenes at O'Hare last week. She's living with me for the duration. You and Mrs H. stay well and keep up the good work.

Hedda

[Ohiogal]

24. I remember lining up for sugar cubes

And we were all expected to take it.

No crazy anti-vaxxers screaming about religious exemptions back then.

[blueinredohio]

31. I 'remember the sugar cubes.

[MicaelS]

58. Yep, I remember that.

I also asked for another one.

[jberryhill]

67. Or dentists complaining about sugar cubes

[Silver Swan]

25. In the early 1950s

In the early 1950s, my mother would never let us go swimming on Sunday. We lived near a lake, and swam there often, but on Sunday there were too many out-of-towners at the lake, and she believed they might spread polio, unlike the locals whom we knew well!

I remember getting the Salk vaccine in the fourth grade, so it was the 1955-1956 school year.

[greatauntoftriplets]

26. Oh, yes, I remember being restricted.

Mostly it was to my neighborhood. I was something of a sickly kid due to bad tonsils that, for some idiot reason, the doctor refused to remove. So I had strep quite a bit.

While other kids took swimming lessons, I was not allowed to. But I could go and watch the others. There were other places I wasn't allowed to go, even though I never got it.

There was a kid in my neighborhood who had it badly and always needed braces to walk until he died. A cousin had it and permanently lost use of one arm. My father had a mild case as a kid, but recovered fully.

My sister and I got our shots from the pediatrician, though I vaguely recall others getting inoculated at school. My mother eventually made the doctor take out my tonsils and I was much healthier after that.

I was really relieved once I had more freedom, and eventually learned how to swim.

[rzemanfl]

28. Gotta tell you a story. I was a terrible ballplayer as a kid.

A boy with braces on his legs from polio was on third base. My father was catching. A ground ball was hit to me. Miraculously, I fielded it cleanly and threw a prefect throw to home plate, my father elaborately bobbled the ball and deliberately dropped it. I was so mad at him!

[greatauntoftriplets]

38. I was bad at most sports.

It was good that I predated Titled IX. But I always loved being in the water even when I couldn't swim. We lived 4 blocks from Lake Michigan so spent summers there and riding bikes.

Did it take you long to forgive your father?

[rzemanfl]

43. Not after he told me it was bad form to throw out a kid in braces at home plate

and he didn't want him to try to slide in. Strangely I still remember that kid's name. Don't ask me what the person who lived next door last year's name though.

[greatauntoftriplets]

45. Yeah, you have to give credit to the kid for playing while wearing braces.

The guy I knew had the most amazing attitude towards his disability all his life. Memory is a strange thing.

[rzemanfl]

46. First person I thought of when I saw

Forest Gump.

[greatauntoftriplets]

48. I can see that.

[shanti]

53. My uncle got it

was sick for awhile, and ended up with a withered leg. He had post-polio syndrome too when he was much older.

[peggysue2]

72. My uncle also contracted polio

Lumbar polio affecting his lungs. He was in his mid-40s which meant a diagnosis was delayed because presumably anyone over 40 was not considered at risk. Proved to be wrong, wrong and wrong.

He was in an Iron Lung for 14 months, one of the lucky few, doctors said because his lungs had enough capacity left that he was taught to breathe using his diaphragm. He was eventually released but his activities were severely reduced. I caught up to my cousin recently at my sister's funeral. She told me something I didn't know: my uncle worked tirelessly at the county's board of health to ensure that the polio vaccine was efficiently distributed through our local schools. It was a huge project.

Something of a sad irony, I realized, that he would come down with the disease while we were being inoculated against it.

He survived but his health was compromised; he died about 10 years after the infection.

Learn something every day!

[greatauntoftriplets]

73. It was a terrible disease.

Dr. Salk was a real hero to generations.

[SWBTATTReg]

30. Yes. We had a kid down the block that caught it actually. Was in Independence MO back then...

[csziggy]

51. A girl down the block from me had it

Years after the vaccinations were available. They were religious nuts and didn't believe in vaccinations, but they did believe in doctors or she wouldn't have survived. She was in an iron lung for a while, then in braces when she came back to regular school.

She graduated valedictorian of our class and went to medical school.

Her Mom got in trouble for leading prayers before every class even after the Supreme Court decision that took prayer out of school. She actually had sent a Jehovah's Witness student to the office for staying in the hall while she led prayers, the she was upset that she was suspended and almost lost her job over the uproar. She always blamed it on the student.

[Walleye]

32. Yes. We weren't allowed to swim anymore in the State Park with the Cypress tree pond.

I was born in 1949 and remember getting the Salk shot, 2nd grade, I think. We also couldn’t play in the rainwater in the ditch before that. I remember the kids who had to walk with braces and how the vaccine wiped out those fears. I also remember that everyone had to take it. This is why the younger people can think of it as ancient history. We thought we’d seen the last of measles, too

[murielm99]

35. I was born in 1948.

I remember the shots. I remember seeing many people with the aftereffects of polio. It was very common then.

My mother was so terrified of polio that she never allowed any of us to learn to swim.

[rzemanfl]

36. I remember the fear well and the people with aftereffects. n/t

[zeusdogmom]

42. Lived in a very rural area - very isolated

But that isolation didn't prevent people from contracting polio. In the 7 mile or so radius of church and school, as a kid I personally knew 10 people who exhibited some form of paralysis from polio. When the Salk vaccine became available, as mentioned in other posts, every school kid lined up and was shot in the arm. But not only the school kids. Any adult in the community who so desired was also in line. That is how all the vaccinations were handled. Of course in the mid 50's that was only DPT and small pox. My senior year in HS, the small pox was administered shortly before the Jr. Sr. prom. All of the girls dressed in their beautiful sleeveless prom dresses were sporting big, ugly oozing and scabbing pox scars on their upper left bare arms. 'Twas a lovely fashion accessory.😆

[rzemanfl]

44. The fancy girls got them on their upper thighs (not at school of course).

I've had the good fortune to see a goodly number of upper thighs.

[shanti]

57. I got mine

UNDER my upper arm, never to be seen. Mother was a RN and knew what to do.

[rzemanfl]

59. Without permission I trust. n/t

[shanti]

60. Mother

just asked them to put it under, and they did. If one didn't have a parent who was in the medical profession, they wouldn't even know that it was a possibility. I never heard of the thigh thing though.

[rzemanfl]

61. I was suggesting a few people might have had permission to see the scar.

Male conditioning.

[shanti]

62. Oh you!

[hedda_foil]

91. My mother had the pediatrician give mine in the upper thigh. Oddly I didn't scar.

My grandmother's scar was a good three inches in diameter but she was born in 1889 so it was probably a bigger dose then.

[zeusdogmom]

80. Swimming instructor?😄

Or perhaps a dermatologist doing a full body scan for suspicious areas?

[rzemanfl]

83. Merely an observant heterosexual male. n/t

[COLGATE4]

47. Yep. No yard confinement but also no swimming,

no county fairs (or other fun gatherings of lots of people), no using drinking fountains and probably a bunch of others I don't now remember. Also, collecting dimes for the March of Dimes to pay for iron lungs for kids who already had gotten the disease. Horrible times. Salk should be canonized.

[Sneederbunk]

77. Could not run through the sprinkler and must take naps.

[COLGATE4]

86. Oh hell, yes! I had forgotten about having to take naps!!!!!!

Every day I bless Jonas Salk, particularly since one of my best friend's older brother contracted polio. Fortunately he got out of it with only a slightly affected leg but the scare was tremendous. Anti vaxxers have no idea what horrible consequences can arise from not using available vaccinations.

[redstatebluegirl]

49. I remember a friend of mine had Polio, we were not allowed to visit him.

They had an iron lung in their living room. 2 people in my class died of polio.

[WheelWalker]

55. Born in '49. Had both the Salk and Sabin vaccines. Three kids

on my block in Toledo had polio, one was in an iron lung in their living room. Our block had its own doctor, Doc Nagel. He lived on the corner and his office was in his basement with a separate outside entrance. Most of my visits with the good doctor were his house calls to our home. I also had hard (10 day) measles. My aunt was a nurse and Catholic nun. She cared for me through that at home after she was kicked out of her cloistered convent.

[jberryhill]

56. Nope, just missed it - but DO remember Hong Kong Flu quarantines

[eilen]

64. I don't remember it but I was born in 1965

But.. My grandfather had polio when he was a boy and his school was turned into polio wards. He and two other boys walked out.. albeit on crutches. It had settled in his right leg. He suffered quite a bit in his later years with post polio syndrome.

My stepmother got polio in utero and was born with no kneecaps. She also eventually developed MS.

So my family have always been pro-vaccinations. I can still remember my grandmother telling me the story about it and every time she would say God Bless Dr. Salk and say a prayer for him and his family.

[tblue37]

65. I remember standing in line for an oral dose of the polio vaccine. nt

[Brother Buzz]

69. I was strictly forbidden to play in the swamp

We had three polio victims laid up in bed in my immediate neighborhood, so my folks were pretty spooked, and the tidal swamp was deemed the culprit.

After receiving polio injections in the late fifties, I figured I was good to go back to the swamp. And I did.

[gibraltar72]

70. I remember all sorts of speculation as to what caused it.

My folks were convinced the dust from dirt roads was one thing. There were many other theories.

[rzemanfl]

71. From Wikipedia-

"The disease was first recognized as a distinct condition by the English physician Michael Underwood in 1789[1] and the virus that causes it was first identified in 1908 by the Austrian immunologist Karl Landsteiner."

[Raftergirl]

74. I was born in '56

and all I remember is the sugar cube (unless that was another vaccine.) Don’t know what age I was but it had to be when I was very young. I should ask my mom about it.

There was a kid two years ahead of me in high school who walked with braces on both legs from having polio.

[KatyMan]

78. My wife had it

Affected both legs- one leg is 1 inch shorter and her feet were also affected. She was in braces until 6th grade. She was lucky and had many surgeries at the Shriner's Hospital. However, my wife is dynamite- she never let if affect her- she has been an RN for 38 years and runs circles around me.

[rzemanfl]

82. Good for her. n/t

[The Genealogist]

81. I was born (1973) well after the polio scares

I seem to remember going to the doctor as a little kid and being given some kind of cherry flavored stuff in a little plastic cup. I always figured that was a polio booster.

[Greybnk48]

84. Yep. In the late 50's. The kid across the street

got polio and had to wear braces for years.

Our PA neighborhood was also restricted for scarlet fever for a short while.

[rzemanfl]

85. I was in the Chicago suburbs. n/t

[Liberty Belle]

87. I had one of the early vaccines but my cousin got polio. She was 2 years older.

It left her with some nerve damage and some odd last effects. She was never able to feel labor pains or contractions when pregnant -- gave birth to one of her chlidren in the doctor's office during a checkup, as a result.

My mother had a cousin whose husband had a far worse case of polio. He was left in an iron lung for life, and only passed a way a couple of years ago after over half a century of living that way.

It was the most dreaded of the childhood diseases, along with smallpox.

[efhmc]

88. The absolutely worse was a Texas summer with no SWIMMIMG.

Of course that was not the absolute worse but it's what I remember.