OLD TIME VACCINATIONS

Tis healthy to be sick sometimes-- Henry David Thoreau

Vaccinations today are routine, though under suspicion by some. A child can't go to school today unless they can show proof that they have been protected from a laundry list of diseases. Considering how these childhood diseases can sometimes be fatal, today's methods are far superior to what I grew up with, but we had no options. When I was a whippersnapper, we developed our immunities a little differently than those offered in a doctor's office today. These methods may seem barbaric but they were not an uncommon practice then.

We developed immunities simply by being exposed to, suffering the disease, never to have it again. The only vaccination offered and required, was for small pox. There was no need for documentation for that immunization. All who had been vaccinated carried a dime size scar on their shoulder. Proof positive. But there were other diseases lurking out there.

My older brother Jack was the first to get sick with the measles. So, my brother Jim and I were moved into Jack's room and promptly got the measles also. Possible the theory behind infecting the whole family is that it was just as easy to treat 3 kids as it was one and since we all lived in the same house, contamination was likely anyway. This method just hurried the process. An advantage also was that one doctor visit covered all.

We had just recovered from the measles as a group when Jimmy came home from school with the whooping cough. Again, we all piled into Jack's room and shared the wealth. Mother had to home school the boys to keep them from falling behind. I was preschool. The teachers worked with her to keep her sickly kids away from class.

By now, we were pretty peaked and run down so when the mumps reared its ugly head, we sure enough got it. Surprisingly, we did not get cranky with one another in the forced imprisonment. While one was usually wallowing in the beginning stage of the disease, two were usually well enough to play board games or read comics. We were seldom at the same stage at the same time. For siblings, we did quite well.

I don't think most kids went thru 3 diseases, back to back, like we did. It was really rough on us but also my Mother who had to tend to the sickies. Below is a picture I just love.

Mother sat us in the grass after we healed from our last disease, to document just what we had just been thru. She should have been in the picture for she was worn down also. We are racks of bones with dark circles under the eyes and too weak to smile, but we were carrying a life time of immunity in those scrawny bodies. We looked like the "starving children" that your parents made you eat your peas to support.

Family gang exposure to disease was a tough go while it was happening, but thanks to the unorthodox method, the rest of our childhood was disease free.

Were you exposed to parenting methods as a child that worked wonderfully at the time, but today might get parents investigated?