I grew up outside Boston in the early 1950’s and in the hot summer, running under the lawn sprinkler to cool off was prohibited by Mom as were trips to the amusement park. The disease was at its high point then, and in hindsight, it probably was a good decision by her.
I grow up in the late 1950s. As far as polio went, the turning point was 1954. That’s when Salk’s vaccine was first made available.
And interestingly enough, as a young man I worked for a few years in the very building where Jonas Salk did his research. Salk was still alive, but he had moved on by then.
(And no, I wasn’t a fancy research scientist or anything like that. I was a university security guard.)
I grew up outside Boston in the early 1950’s and in the hot summer, running under the lawn sprinkler to cool off was prohibited by Mom as were trips to the amusement park.
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That’s not at all like my neighborhood as a kid. The discussion would have gone something like this...
Neighbor No. 1... “I heard that the Smith’s boy/girl got measles/mumps.... “
Neighbor No. 2... “Oh good... let me send my kids over there so that they can catch it. So nice to get this thing out of the way when they are young so they will have immunity.”