Vintage shots from days gone by!

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RIGHT, Ron. For us kids in our home, POLIO was a hell of a lot more scary than the COLD WAR. Our parents, of course, had told us how FDR was healthy, until he caught POLIO as an adult!

Then my dearest uncle was born in '35 and lived all his life with POLIO. I'll just say: POLIO was a life-altering, probably life-shortening, disease!!!

Some people nowadays want to simply discontinue children's innoculations for diseases that have become rare. Bwahaha! Ever hear of shingles? Results from having chicken pox as a kid, often occurring more frequently among the elderly, whose immune systems are gearing down. Given the excruciating pain of shingles, I'd take POLIO any day, or lifetime. And medical science still can't figure the disease out -- though a vaccine is now offered for shingles.

 

Yup, lost my sis in '06, and a close friend who had polio as a kid just last year. Both were in their early 60s when they passed. Altho I didn't have polio I grew up with it in the family, watching sister with her daily therapy & painful exercises to keep her leg and arm in as good shape as could be. My other friend had it worse; she told me of the agony of being in an iron lung for months and of losing the use of both legs. I had whooping cough in '55 (nowadays I think it's called pertusis); I barely remember it but certainly enough to know that it was not fun.

 

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So, are we havin' fun yet?

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Not sonic testing.

Those are air gages, used to check bore size.

 

The person I considered the most talented actor in my class was Marilyn Monroe. She would walk into class with Arthur Miller’s shirts tied at her waist, her feet in flip-flops, the sweet musky smell of Lifebuoy soap wafting after her. Her hair pulled back with a rubber band, was always a little wet, as if she’d just stepped out of the shower.

One afternoon I was sitting in my place on the Lower East Side when my phone rang. I picked it up, and a voice said, “Hi Lou, It’s Marilyn.” “Marilyn who?” I asked, and when she answered, “Marilyn from class.” I had a genuine fit. She was asking me to be in her love scene in Tennessee William’s The Rose Tattoo at our next class. She was probably being nice to me because I wasn’t one of the stellar students in class, like Sidney Poitier, and no one else was asking me to do love scenes. But here she was, inviting me to play the sailor to her hot-blooded Serafina delle Rose.

I was a kid then, full of juice. I considered myself hot to trot, but I knew there was no way on earth I could play that scene. I was so star-struck, I wouldn’t have gotten out one word onstage. I must have stammered or something, because she got off the line pretty fast, and I think it was Marty Landau who ended up playing the scene. (I happen to think Mr. Landau is one of the most consummate actors I have ever seen on stage or screen.) To this day, if I catch a whiff of Lifebuoy soap, my olfactory senses take over and I am undeniably aroused.

-Louis Gossett Jr. “An Actor and a Gentleman”

 

Something not well known is that there were 2 different vaccines used one was "live". Live Vaccine was developed for "Poor or Depressed" areas the theory was that parents or anyone coming into contact of the body fluids of vaccinated person would be exposed to the vaccine and they would become "vaccinated" themselves.In theory this would help spread the immunity over wider areas "In Theory" this was a great idea but it didn't work out quite like they planned They also did not tell people that the vaccination itself could cause Polio in some of the patients. My wife and her twin sister were the "Polio Poster Child" for our area in 1955 both were vaccinated at the same time and my wife got Polio her twin did not! My mother in law told the story often of how her 4 year old daughter was snatched from her arms at the doctors office and she did not see her again for for several months!Mary(My wife) was rushed to a sanitorium in we think Hartford and family wasn't allowed visits or anything for several months Mary was gone so long she was afraid of everyone and it took several days before she would accepted her family again!The doctors weren't sure she would live or if she did if she would be in an iron lung for the rest of her life. Today unless you know what to look for you'd never know she is a survivor.

 

I had a BSA in 1970. The owners manual stated " The purpose of a motorcycle is to get from point A to point B in the fastest possible manner!" Looking back, I've been following that adage most of my life .

 

5 beautiful young ladies basically kept in a fish bowl most of their lives! They were constantly on display and even seperated from their parents and family.

 

Looks like the "Coast Daylight."

 

This guy looks like he enjoys crazy stuff,,
hope he likes going really fast

 

My old 1947 "Whizzer"

 

There ya go ,,i wasnt sure,,, thought someone would correct it ,,,when i realized the piston rack in the background was there it could be for sizing ,,

 

Gasport NY

Jacksonville

 

Dreamland, Coney Island 1911

 

Lucy

 

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clara Bow

Hedy Lamar