If you are of a certain age…old now, you might remember these cards and the big push to get everyone vaccinated against polio. I came across this immunization certificate going through a box of papers from my mother’s house. I also have the cards for Type 2 and Type 3. I think my mother must have filled in my name as it looks like her handwriting.
The card is from the Orange County Medical Society which is in New Jersey. As there is a Navy base in the area we lived there on two different occasions. The first time, I passed the last two thirds of 2nd grade and all of 3rd grade there in the town of Pine Beach. The final time I passed the last half of 5th grade there and all of 6th grade in the town of Toms Rivers. I’m reasonably sure this is from the first stint which puts it circa 1959 to 1961.
I have a vague memory of standing in line with a bunch of other kids and someone giving me a sugar cube to eat. Polio was a horrible disease that affected many people mostly children. At its peak it infected nearly 60,000 people annually 3000 of whom died. There was a huge nationwide and also worldwide push to eliminate this killer. I had an aunt who was one of the lucky victims, she only limped the rest of her life.
Here is an interesting article on the subject: Wiping Out Polio: How The U.S. Snuffed Out A Killer
The article is from 2012. Polio was declared eradicated worldwide in 2019, but other sources say there are still some pockets around the planet.
Keep well.
I remember the sugar cube. I’d always thought the arm scar was from the polio vaccine, but it was smallpox. I do not have a scar even though I did get the vaccine. I recall that it burned a lot and my mother wiped my arm. I have no idea if she wiped off so much of whatever they put in (or if that was even possible) or whether the vaccine took and I have immunity. Good thing smallpox was also eradicated.
Glad you survived… I think my scar finally faded away after 55 or 60 years.