Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Polio: History Doesn't Repeat, But It Rhymes

In the 1950s polio was a fearsome issue in many communities, and I remember the precautions, the warnings, the closed venues and many parents who seemed to feel helpless in trying to protect their kids.

Three of my friends suffered the disease. One wound up with badly deformed and poorly functioning legs - fought through like a warrior and later became an expert in electrical transmission, an excellent guitarist, and did almost everything the rest of us did as adults (including riding his big FLH Harley). He married a great gal and they raised four sons. In his 60s, the notorious late in life effects roared in and he suffered a great deal before succumbing.

The second went onto an iron lung in order to sustain breathing and we neighborhood kids were allowed to go visit her two at a time. She recovered without any noticeable deformities as a teenager but I never again saw her after that.

The third kid had almost no ill effects - just greatly scared for a while.

The arrival of the vaccines was a BIG deal, especially the second one.

Yes, I was twice treated as well....

I had the shot and sugar cub as well back in the early 60's

Got a friend that is not a lot older than me that has Polio, don't know if he got the shot and sugar back then or not

My Great Uncle had polio as a child in the 1930's ,it twisted him like a corkscrew,into a hunchback.He recovered but was crippled for life.He became an accountant,had a modified Rambler he drove,but walked with a severe limp as one leg was shorter than the other.Late in life he had trouble breathing from it and passed away in his house in 1983.My stepfather also had it,his torso grew but his legs never did.My father in law also had polio,it discharged him from the Army.It was a bad,scary disease.

Ditto.

The vaccines were a miracle, until God was kicked out of medicine and the folks turned to satan as their leader.

Millions of families lived in fear of the big P back then.

I had polio at 18 months in the 1952. I have muscles in my legs that didn't develop properly. One leg is about 1/4 in. short and I don't run for grunt. 4F in Viet era. I get along pretty well. Most folks can't tell I have poor muscle development and only develop a limp in my gait when I am very tired. So far no residual reoccurance, bless the Lord for that.

I had polio in 1951. Left me with legs shorter than normal and one an inch shorter than the other. I remember noting for a while kids being gone from school. Several out of np my class. Some died. I was lucky, I guess. Limited flexibility and some compromising of joints. Wish they'd had the vaccine when I was six. 78 now and still moving.

I'm 80 and I got the Polio vax in upstate NY. Where did you live ?

I got the sugar cube, the nurse put a few drops of pink liquid on it. This was a big deal to my mom. The vaccine worked.

My dad got it in the 50's. I was 3 or 4 at the time. He made a full recovery but was in the hospital and rehab for 4 months. While there, he saw some scary things.
When the Salk hit the streets, Dad had us 1st in line for the shots. When Sabine came out, he had us at the front of the line again.

I remember the sugar cube...but what I REALLY remember was that smallpox inoculation...man 30-40 kinder gardeners all crying. LOL what a day.

Lots of cases among the ‘Fire members from back in the days. I had the sugar cube as a kid in England.

When I was in Africa in the ‘80’s polio was still very much a thing, seems like every village had a couple of kids on crutches already with a withered leg. Sad and completely preventable.

I wasn't around, but I'm betting they didn't tell un vaxed people they shouldn't have Thanksgiving because they might kill Grandma.

I lived thru it. But there is some wrong information. If you were exposed to someone who developed polio or was diagnosed with it, you were quarantined for X number of days. I can't remember the amount of time, but me and the whole family of 6 were quarantined when my cousin was diagnosed with it and we had visited with them the day before. Yes, some things were shut down because they had no idea what or how polio was or transmitted.The medical field instituted the quarantine, not the government and there was no enforcement.

We saw the same thing as today there were a large group of idiots that didn't believe there was problem .

Polio does and can cause problems with seniors who where exposed to it, but had even mild cases.

Same here and IIRC it was three doses on the sugar cubes.

A friend of mine had it and I remember him having steel braces on his lower legs.

You guys are talking about a time when vaccines were actually just that. Before the book definition was changed to fit with the poison they are dealing out to moronic sheeple

I had polio when I was 4 yrs old. This was shortly after the Cutter disaster and everyone was still afraid of the vaccine The docs told my parents that the vaccine might help, but they wasn't sure. Would they be willing to use me as a guinea pig to see if it would do any good to give the shot, after you had polio, but still in the early stages. I got the shot. I remember well the hospital and rehab. I came out ok, but with weak legs and they cramped a lot. Being young and otherwise healthy, over the years, my legs gained strength and by the time I was 8 or10, all was fine. Now that I'm older, I dont know if the aches and pains are from the polio or just old age.

How about running the gauntlet in boot camp with medics on both sides with those hydraulic injectors? Three or four hits to each arm, and big, tough-looking football player types passing out before they made the whole trip!

I've been vaccinated 3 times and still dont have a scar. I dont remember when I got the first vaccination, but I didn't scar. Although my school records showed I had been vaccinated, several years later the nurse at a different school didn't see a scar and figured the records were wrong, so I was vaccinated again. Another couple years later, at another new school, the nurse said my records were wrong. I told her I had the vaccination, but she argued and gave it to me again. After the scab came off, I went back to the nurse and showed her that I didn't scar from it.