Old So What

  Wasn’t I lucky? Actually NO.   The polio shot itself and what I may have caught as a germ of polio caused me to contract the disease. That’s what the doctors thought.  I will never really know. Did the shot contain live polio?  Again, I will never know. Other children around this time, who had gotten the Salk Vaccine shots, contracted the disease, too. If it was because of the same reason. Well, guess along with me. Where I lucked out is that my doctor (a specialist) put me in the hospital, and in traction immediately.   I couldn’t even go home first to get anything such as books or clothes, or playthings. Because the Children’s wing was full up in the local hospital, they put me in the lounge, on an adult floor, with a public telephone booth, so I was usually not alone. Mostly it was boring and despite the booth, lonely.   I especially missed being around other children. (I was eleven.) Before I continue, perhaps I should explain that “tr...