Maggie's Farm

I'm 77, my wife and I have been staying home and not visiting friends or family since March of 2020. I miss my grandchildren, I do get to talk to them on the phone sometimes. I hate the pandemic and the mask and the worry. It reminds me of growing up in the 40's and 50's. My mother had polio when she was a child and caused one leg to be shorter than the other. But she had relatives who had far worse effects from polio. I can remember visiting an uncle in a hospital at age 4 and he was in an iron lung. He looked at us from a mirror placed above his head which was all that stuck out from the noisy green machine. About ever 2 seconds it made a terrible noise and seemed to move slightly as it breathed for him. I don't know how long he had been in it but I believe the reason my mom went to visit is he was going to die.

Polio was scary. By that I mean my mother was terrified of it and her fear was palpable to us as children. I lost a sibling to whooping cough and can remember it plainly even though I was six when he died. But he slept in my bedroom along with my older brother and he coughed in terrible ways. If you have never heard it you simple do not know the terror in gives you. To this day I can still hear it.

My mother knew that polio was more commonly acquired in the Summer so she would 'Quarantine' us kids on hot days. She would pull the shades down and we simply stayed in the house. No air conditioning and no insulation in the house so if it was 100 outside it was 105 inside by 2:00 PM. Her fear was our fear even though we didn't understand. I remember when Dr. Salk created the polio vaccine. All the children go it in school and I remember it was oral; as a tiny cup of pink liquid you drank. I can't remember the grade in school, could have been 3rd grade or 6th grade. I remember the room I was in and I had the same room for both grades.

After Salk's miracle the world breathed easier. What a great fear polio had given us all back then. Now it is covid.

I miss my grandkids...