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I have a brother who is four years older than I am. When he started first grade he brought measles, mumps and chickenpox home to the rest of us. My mother had never had mumps and came down with it the same time I did. My father had all three when he was a child so he was the only one in the house that did not get sick that year.

I also remember waiting in line to get my polio sugar cube. My parents, like yours, were ecstatic that there was a polio vaccine.

My mother taught elementary school during the polio epidemic in the 1950s and had students who came down with polio. Most people were justifiably terrified of polio because there seemed to be no rhyme or reason why some children caught it and others did not. In retrospect, many more caught it than was known at the time, because they had mild cold-like symptoms, but thousands of children who caught it were not so fortunate.