Goldsmith, Vicki - Polk County

Describe what you remember about the fear surrounding polio epidemics:

When I was growing up, polio was a constant threat. We never knew what caused it, so every summer there was a new theory: crowds, heat, swimming pools, etc. We were forbidden to go to swimming pools. The children next door got polio, and my family was panicked, afraid we would all die. One summer the rumor was that flies carried the disease, so my grandmother was phobic about flies. I was six, and my best friend was seven. Her baby sister had been a premature stillbirth, our first exposure to death. We were fascinated with funerals and began having pretend funeral processions in the backyard with matchboxes filled with dead flies, bees, and spiders adorned with flower petals. My grandmother caught us one day and was hysterical, certain we would come down with polio. She watched us for days, examining us for sore throats, fevers, and stiff necks. I remember when I was a sophomore in high school and we were all given the sugar cube inoculation; I thought it was a miracle, and indeed it was.

Tell us what you remember of the impact of polio:

I had two friends who wore braces or spent time in the hospital very ill. One had a shriveled arm; another a shriveled leg. We were shown pictures of iron lungs and people living inside them, a horrible threat to us.

Describe the reaction of your family and others you knew to the development of the vaccine:

I was a sophomore in high school, 1957, when we received the sugar cube. I can still sense the enormous relief, the veil of tension lifted from all of us, the knowledge that after spending our childhoods dreading that we might be victims, we were suddenly safe.