Infantile Paralysis, and Other Things Whispered About.

I had my 'flu and pneumonia vaccinations yesterday.

That took me down memory lane to the land of whispers and secrets regarding certain illnesses.

She has infantile paralysis.

He was a blue baby.

She put her head into a gas over.  (Suicide or attempted suicide in the days when the latter was a crime in the U.K.)

He is in Barrow.  The local mental hospital was in a village called Barrow Gurney.

Hush.  Hush. Whisper.  Don't even use the word cancer.  The word itself signified  a death penalty.

And the childhood illnesses.   In my large family they ran the gamut.

Measles, German Measles, Chicken Pox each racing to one child from another in those says before vaccinations.  And of course I will not mention head lice.

I, being special (!)  also contracted Scarlet Fever.  I was rushed to an isolation hospital  (where a nurse slapped me).  Mum and Dad could visit me only to be allowed to look at me and give me a wave from behind a window, and deliver a care package.

In puberty I had "the mumps" (we always used the definite article).  There's a chance that mumps during puberty  left me infertile - but I've never put that to the test!

Then everything began to change.  When I was approx. nine years old we all lined up in the school hall to receive a Polio vaccine.  We got it orally;  a drop of Salk's magic on a spoonful of sugar.

No ifs, and or buts about it. Parents were grateful in a world without anti vaccers.  No more Infantile Paralysis.