For Momma - Memorial Slide Show (Turn Playlist Music off before watching)

Monday, April 27, 2009

Thank You Mr. Sabin - Sabin Sunday - April 24, 1960

Recently my cousin sent me a copy of an obituary of one of my great grandparents from the Blue Hill Leader Newspaper of 1949. On the same page, an article regarding a Polio Meeting in Red Cloud, Nebraska caught my eye.

The article brought back a lot of memories of growing up in the 1950's. Being an Air Force Brat - anytime there was a new vaccine the Air Force medical team would set up an area in the school or in the base gymnasium to administer the shots. Picture this - several hundred children - standing in line with their mothers - knowing they were going to get a shot. Oh boy - not much fun for anyone. And of course the closer you got to the head of the line - the more you could hear the ones in front of you screaming and crying, which of course made it much worse.

I also remember the little milk cartons that were distributed by the March of Dimes. We carried them with us on Halloween to collect pennies in - and then turned them in at school. The pennies were used to research a cure for polio and the help the thousands of polio victims. It was a horrible disease that crippled many children.

I remember Sabin Sunday in 1960, when we lined up for the vaccine that would protect us from polio. Scared of yet another shot for a disease a child could not understand. What a pleasant surprise it was when we found out there were no needles - just a cube of sugar! As the old Mary Poppins song goes - "Just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down!" Wouldn't it be wonderful if all of life's woes could be cured with a simple lump of sugar.

Thank you Mr. Sabin for that Sunday - 49 years ago!

7 comments:

  1. WOW, you brought back alot of memories that were tucked inside the back of my brain with this blog! One of my brothers actually got polio, so I was getting shots to prevent it. I do remember those little milk cartons for the March of Dimes and going door to door on Washington Drive collecting the coins. Weren't they orange?

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  2. Now that brings back memories. I remember going to the local fire station to get our medicine. We got ours in a little cup and it tasted like cherries. My cousin had polio when he was a kid (he turns 60 next month!) and was a March of Dimes poster child (also known as Timmy's child).

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  3. I do remember the switchover to sugar cubes. For my classmates and me, it was like a national holiday!

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  4. I started reading your blog to find a way to contact you about the restoration comment you left on my blog and wow! I love it here!! Very nice!

    Oh, what I needed to contact you about: give me a holler (janine at landailyn.com) or landailyn on Twitter, please?

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  5. Terri, I left you a little something over on my blog ;- )
    "http://lindasflipside.blogspot.com/2009/05/unbelieveable-award.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Terri,
    I have chosen you to receive the "One Lovely Blog" Award, you can pick it up at my blog Genealogy Fun.

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  7. Terri,

    Just wanted to stop in and say that I love your blog. I just can't get enough of the colorized photos and mysteries you tell.

    ReplyDelete

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