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Doc said the chickenpox virus usually hits you when you are stressed, fatigued, weak and aren’t eating right. Sounds like a civil (it was anything but civil) war soldier. So I have no doubt about what you learned. Getting childhood maladies as a child is one thing but as an adult not so good. I got mumps at 20 years old. The only time I could brag about being hung like a Brahma bull. It was a tough couple of weeks. I was in off crew on my boat at the time. I didn’t feel particularly sick and offered to report for muster at the crew’s office. My COB told me he’d kick my ass and throw me in the brig if I did. He and a few of the officers hadn’t ever had the mumps. My only stint that got me out of muster in the USN. It seems funny now, it wasn’t then. Regards

I know I never had the mumps, which leads me to believe none of my siblings did, because I would have caught it from them. There were no vaccines for measles or mumps when we were growing up. Back then, real penicillin was white, not the synthetic stuff, and they had to give you the shot in your butt cheek. I used to get ear aches a lot, and the doctor had to come to our house because we didn't have a car, and give me a penicillin shot. They didn't have disposable syringes then. They used the stainless steel needles and syringes that they'd sterilize and reuse again. I think he charged my mother $2 for a home visit.

We did get the polio vaccines in the 50's. There were 3 different shots you had to get when they first came out. I never had a problem with needles because I got so used to getting shots in my butt, but those vaccines were not pleasant. After they injected the live serum, your arm gradually began aching, then got worse, and you could barely lift your arm. The side effects would gradually recede after several hours, and your arm would return to normal.

My sons both got the mumps vaccine. One was born in 1966. The second was born in 1971. They never had the mumps, so the vaccines must have worked. Both had chickenpox before the vaccine came to be. Oldest son got one of the first batches of measles vaccine, then a few years later he came down with full blown measles. When we took him to the doctor, he told us that some of the first batches were not effective.