Hi,
I loved your insightful article in the Washington Post. I grew up in Montgomery, but well after the polio years. I forwarded the article to my mother and my aunt. My mother claims no memory, but my aunt shared the following with me, which I share with you:
John, I remember the GG Vaccine. It did really hurt. Mine was given at Lanier High School. I felt it was unfair, know Betty [my mother] nor James [my late uncle] had to get it.
My memory may be twisted, but what I remember was: I had to lay on a table, it was given in the fanny. In an open auditorium. Since we were all young there was no modesty allowed. There were what looked like hundreds of children with bare bottoms, crying and screaming.
Some type of “stain” was put on our fannies after we got the shot, to make sure we only got one. After all “if one shot was good, the two would have been better”.
Montgomery had a lot of polio cases. It struck so many families. I remember Tommy Blount had it. Even in to high school there were classmates who were suffering from the after effects.
Once when Jimmie [my grandfather, my aunt’s father] was talking about the summer we moved to Point Clear, he said it nearly broke him. But HC [my grandmother] said they had to get their children out of Montgomery.
He of course agreed, and a moving van moved our stuff to Point Clear. I had no idea it was to save us from polio.
I think we went back the next summer. Probably because it was so much fun the first summer. Jimmie’s business obviously was better, so we could go without a financial drain. Don’t think we stayed but a month the second summer. The first summer we were there the entire summer.
The “test group” for the first vaccine, either was the Salk or the Sabin, that I don’t remember, were the kindergarteners and then the first graders of my age. Those were put in the arm.
Those were given at school during a school.
It was a double blind test both years. The children born in 1947 [my aunt’s birth year] were the guinea pigs.
John, I remember seeing people in iron lungs. That is something once seen is never forgotten. Not pictures of people, but actual people.
Thanks for the article.
*****
Again, thank you for the article. Your observations are, of course, right.
AUTHOR: John Cork
AUTHOR EMAIL: johncork@mac.com
AUTHOR URL:
SUBJECT: [Kate Cohen] Contact
IP: 104.238.218.124
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[4_Comment] => Hi,
I loved your insightful article in the Washington Post. I grew up in Montgomery, but well after the polio years. I forwarded the article to my mother and my aunt. My mother claims no memory, but my aunt shared the following with me, which I share with you:
John, I remember the GG Vaccine. It did really hurt. Mine was given at Lanier High School. I felt it was unfair, know Betty [my mother] nor James [my late uncle] had to get it.
My memory may be twisted, but what I remember was: I had to lay on a table, it was given in the fanny. In an open auditorium. Since we were all young there was no modesty allowed. There were what looked like hundreds of children with bare bottoms, crying and screaming.
Some type of “stain” was put on our fannies after we got the shot, to make sure we only got one. After all “if one shot was good, the two would have been better”.
Montgomery had a lot of polio cases. It struck so many families. I remember Tommy Blount had it. Even in to high school there were classmates who were suffering from the after effects.
Once when Jimmie [my grandfather, my aunt’s father] was talking about the summer we moved to Point Clear, he said it nearly broke him. But HC [my grandmother] said they had to get their children out of Montgomery.
He of course agreed, and a moving van moved our stuff to Point Clear. I had no idea it was to save us from polio.
I think we went back the next summer. Probably because it was so much fun the first summer. Jimmie’s business obviously was better, so we could go without a financial drain. Don’t think we stayed but a month the second summer. The first summer we were there the entire summer.
The “test group” for the first vaccine, either was the Salk or the Sabin, that I don’t remember, were the kindergarteners and then the first graders of my age. Those were put in the arm.
Those were given at school during a school.
It was a double blind test both years. The children born in 1947 [my aunt’s birth year] were the guinea pigs.
John, I remember seeing people in iron lungs. That is something once seen is never forgotten. Not pictures of people, but actual people.
Thanks for the article.
*****
Again, thank you for the article. Your observations are, of course, right.
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