The "Have You Had Your Shots?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading an article about smallpox and the eradication of it that was declared on December 9, 1979.  The last case of it occurred in the UK the year before.  I recently found my vaccination slips that were given to parents to show to the school district upon registering for school.  I had received a vaccination in 1950 in my left arm when I was five years old.  When I went back to the doctor to have my armed checked, he found it to be unsuccessful.  I had no big scab on my arm like all my friends had.  I can just imagine what my mom and dad must have gone through when they realized that my shot didn't work and maybe I could contract smallpox.  So, they took me again!  I have another vaccination slip that shows that I had a successful vaccination the following year.  On October 1st, 1951 at the age of 7, a month after my birthday, my doctor claimed that it was successful, but he crossed out the word vaccination and substituted the word *vaccinoid.  Well the * read: The equivalent of a successful vaccination in a partially immune individual.  So, I was already partially immune and that is why I still have no vaccination mark on my left arm like all my  friends.  I am really thinking of having one tattooed on my arm so I can be like my friends.  How about you?  You remember going through this routine as a child.  How about the Polio shots!  My wife remembers 1957 as if it were yesterday.  She was forced to stand in a long line with her 5th grade classmates. One of her classmates, Judy Bleacher, had been in the line for quite some time.  Seems that when she reached the front of the line to receive her inoculation, she would faint.  The nurse and teacher would help her recover and have her move farther back in the line.  After fainting twice that day, she was positioned in front of my wife.  Third time was a charm for Judy.  My wife told me that in order to get a shot your parents had to sign a paper stating that they wanted you to have a polio vaccination.  She tried to talk her parents into not signing the paper, but they disagreed with her.  There were school line-ups in the hallways of elementary schools all over the country in the late-50s to receive their polio vaccination.  Polio, also known as infantile paralysis, is a viral infection that attacks the nervous system in the body and causes paralysis of the upper and lower limbs, primarily in infants and young children.  The vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk in the 1940s and was announced to the world in 1955. Shortly after that the school inoculations were in progress.  I  also remember getting my shot while standing in line in the center hall of Milton J. Brecht Elementary School.  Nurse swabbed your arm then stuck that awful needle in your arm.  I don't remember many screams, but I remember many tears.  In 1961 Albert Sabin invented the oral polio vaccine and the shots were history.   My children all received the oral vaccine along with the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus) and MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) shots in order to meet the requirements for entry into kindergarten.  We've come a long way.  I can still see my classmate Richard wearing that metal brace on his leg and walking with a cane through the halls of high school.  He wasn't one of the lucky ones who managed to get his shot before contracting Polio.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.