My first memory of a vaccination....

[Are_grits_groceries]

I was 5 or 6 years old. I'm not sure of the exact age, but I was very young. My mother had taken my brother and me to the health department. He was a year older.

For some unknown reason, my Mama left me in the waiting room while she took my brother in for his shot. One man's waiting room is another man's exit station. I took off out of the door. Not for me to meekly wait like a sacrifice to the Gawds of medicine.

My escape was not well thought out, but I was bound for the train station that was not far away. My aunt had taken me there not long before, and I knew it was a way out.

My legs weren't very long, but I was moving them very rapidly. When my Mama came out of the door after somebody had snitched on me, I had a decent head start. However, I could hear her catching up as she 'sweetly' called my name. I knew I had to change my plan.

I ducked into the nearest building which just happened to be the town's police station. Think one step up from Mayberry. I ran into an open office where several men were sitting around, and scooted around some man's legs and underneath his desk.

When I heard my Mama, I preceded to wrap myself around his legs and hold on for dear life. I decided that wailing at the top of my lungs might help in some way.

It took a while for my Mama to explain what was going on especially with me wailing about getting stuck like a pig. I was finally untangled and reluctantly released into her care. They made her promise not to punish me and made it clear they would check on me.

I got my vaccination, and my Mama muttered at me all day. I decided to play under the house with my cats where it would be hard to reach me.

I have had many shots since then. However, I have never had one as exciting and life-threatening.

[rug]

1. If you only had a motorcycle.

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. That woulda been me!

"Teeny Rider"

[angrycarpenter]

3. My shot records got lost when we moved.

So the state of Texas made me take all of the required vaccinations all over again. The only one that could be verified was the small pox scar on my arm, the rest were administered over a hellish 2 day period where it seems to me I had a least 12 injections. After running a fever for two days they finally let me attend school where I was beaten by a gang of Mexicans on my first day. Maybe that has a little something to do with why I detest Texas.

[Lasher]

4. I had just been drafted into the Army. I was standing in line to get an injection.

It was outside at a parking lot in Fort Jackson, SC. They used an air gun type of thing. One shot immunized us against a host of diseases we might encounter throughout the world. I remember Bubonic Plague was one of them.

They warned us not to flinch when they gave us the shot because if you did during that instant a gash in your arm could occur. The guy in front of me must have had a fobia about that kind of thing. He flinched and got a cut that wasn't real bad but it was bleeding quite noticeably. He saw that and fainted right there.

Out came the smelling salts. He quickly revived and decked one of the several sergeants who had surrounded him. I liked that part. Hated those sergeants. The last time I saw him he was rounding the corner of a building with about half a dozen NCOs chasing him.

I didn't flinch.

Lasher

[luvspeas]

5. My older brother got a small pox vaccine when I was still pre-school age...

I do not remember him getting the shot, but I do remember that he got really sick some time after. I remember my mom carrying him into the bathroom and he looked dead. I remember the doctors thinking he might have leukemia, then not knowing what was wrong with him when he didn't. Fortunately he got better and he's in pretty good shape now, but my first memories of a vaccination was my mom telling me very very forcefully that if anyone at school tries to give me a shot without her around, to bite, kick scream run or do whatever was necessary to avoid it until they called her, because they thought my brother might have had a reaction to the small pox vaccine. So unlike most people my age, I have no little round scar on my arm.

Maybe you knew something they didn't.

[Berry Cool]

18. There are very few of us around, I guess.

Somehow I never got vaccinated for smallpox, either, despite being part of the generation for which smallpox vaccinations were required to enter school--they still let me in regardless. My mother never had any idea why, so neither do I (it didn't even occur to her until she had my younger sister vaccinated). Of course, eventually the disease was declared eradicated and vaccination became beside the point.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. We stood in line at the local high school to get polio vaccine

In the late 50s. I remember it well. I was about 5 or 6. Everyone in my neighborhood and from my school was there. It was a very big deal. We must have stood there for hours.

[Are_grits_groceries]

7. I remember getting a sugar cube

with a reddish liquid in it. Is that how you got it?

[pipi_k]

We got a clear liquid in a tiny paper cup

c. 1965 or so...

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. Yes it was a sugar cube.

[shanti]

23. i got the sugar cube too

this was in the first or second grade when i lived in japan...dad was military. we were all lined up in the auditorium.

[Subdivisions]

8. You cracked me up...

My story is not all that dissimilar. I was the older child and if you leave out the police station, our stories are the same. Back in those days nearly every adult had the same authority over you as your parents did. So, when I tried to run, I got as far as the sidewalk outside the health deparment before being snatched up by the arm by another mother bringing her kids in to get stuck like a pig. I was dragged back inside where the lady announced she had an attempted escapee.

You don't wanna even know how I acted once I saw that multi-needled gun come at me...I still have the scar to this day!

[pipi_k]

9. The closest I ever came to such excitement was

the time my mom was about to bring me to the dentist. We lived just down the block from a dentist who must have worked in a prison camp or something. He always caused extreme pain, and I was so afraid of going to him that he would give my mother tranquilizers to give me an hour before my appointment (before the age of 12 I might add). I hated the guy.

So mom found another dentist she hoped wouldn't scare me as much...only by then I was completely traumatized.

she knew better than to tell me beforehand about such appointments, so when the big day arrived she sprung it on me, and I flew down a flight of stairs from our second floor apartment so fast I was a streak. Ran down the street and around the corner to a little terrace nearby where I climbed a tree and hid, watching as mom drove around looking for me.

She eventually gave up and ended up taking one of my sisters so the appointment wouldn't be wasted.

I don't know how she finally got me to go to this other dentist, but, as it turned out, he was very nice. Not a butcher who enjoyed inflicting pain on children, and since I had very soft teeth, I was going to him every couple of weeks for a long time for fillings and stuff.

Eventually I stopped being afraid of him.


Oh, and that was the first and last time I ever climbed a tree. Amazing what adrenaline can do...

:7

[Are_grits_groceries]

10. LOL!

Adrenaline can be an amazing thing.

[woo me with science]

12. What a marvelous story,

brilliantly told.

Thank you for letting us hear it. :)

[Are_grits_groceries]

13. Thanks!

I still have no idea what possessed my Mama to leave me alone in the waiting room. My brother was always by far the more docile child.

I was always up to something. I put some dirt in the washing machine and 'cleaned' it. Perfectly rational idea to me although she didn't appreciate it for some reason????

[sharp_stick]

14. I scooted around

hiding under the furniture of the Dr's office. Mom said I was so jammed up underneath the couch in the waiting room that they had to lift it, then tip it to extricate me.

I blame her totally, she started the day asking me if I wanted to go get a Coke and ever since then claims she didn't BS me but instead said Do you want to go get a "poke".

Many years later, still not forgiven. I keep telling her I'm watching 60 minutes to get an idea of the best reviews for retirement homes.

[Are_grits_groceries]

15. I'm not sure my Mama

ever really forgave me. She would kinda laugh when it came up, but not much. I don't even remember the shot. It was the least of the events of that day.

[sharp_stick]

22. They never do

They wait until you have kids then they laugh and greatly enjoy you enduring the same things.

[itsrobert]

16. Your mother was right to get you vaccinated

Cats carry filthy diseases.

[Are_grits_groceries]

17. I'm not arguing that point.

I know I needed a vaccination. When I was young, her explanation wasn't exactly persuasive.

She also didn't take me to the vet for shots that would prevent feline diseases. I was going for Diptheria or something.

[Berry Cool]

19. The only vaccination I really have a memory of is rubella, in 1969 or so.

Having to go to a big school gym in the next town over and being told that I was getting it so if I ever had babies, they wouldn't get birth defects because of me being sick. I was 7 or 8.

Funny, no one seemed to think that vaccinating me for this reason was going to encourage me to go right out and get pregnant. :-)

I remember they did it with a special injection gun. "You won't even see it going in." It wasn't bad.

[Vinca]

20. I remember waiting in line at the local high school for the polio vaccine.

Thank heavens for Drs. Salk and Sabin.

[barbtries]

21. great story

well told. thank you.