Vaccination

I remember vaccination day when I was a kid; it wasn't unusual, back in the 60's, to be vaccinated before the school year started, or even be vaccinated at school. One of the things they vaccinated you against was Polio. The polio vaccination was still pretty new then, but I didn't know this at the time, it seemed pretty commonplace. What also seemed commonplace was an adult or child wearing arm braces connected to walking canes, but you didn't stare because you didn't want to be impolite; get caught staring by your mother and you were often the recipient of a quick forehand to the back of the head. Yes, my mother didn't want us staring at the polio victim because it was impolite, but I suspect there was a superstitious reason as well - there were still kids with arm or leg braces, still kids in iron lungs, still old-wives tales going around about how you could catch polio by sleeping next to an open window or some other innocuous act. We didn't look, our mothers made us look away, because we didn't want to be next.