Spring Bee Hiving Moon
Polio in the news. This month’s Scientific American has coverage on the bid to eliminate polio. That this can be a serious discussion represents a literally unbelievable leap from 1949 when I had polio to now.
(I was a March of Dimes baby. March, 1950, I think.)
Polio before Salk and Sabin created even more generalized fear than H.I.V. It devastated millions. Some of us, like me, had it, recovered and moved on. Others still wear a brace, have a withered limb, a curved spine.
I’m left with the fading memories of a forgotten terror, a time when a child’s chill could be the precursor to paralysis. As it was in my case.
It’s strange to have been a victim of a plague most don’t even know ever happened. Think of those high school seniors I toured last week who were born in 1994. 1949 was 45 years before they were born. When I turned 18 in 1965 45 years before was 1920. And 45 years back from my birth date of 1947 was 1902. It’s as if I had the Spanish flu during the great epidemic and survived.
A miracle, really.
